400 killed after Pakistan strikes hit drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Taliban says

Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing at least 400 people in an air strike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital late on Monday. It marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as air strikes inside Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have gone unheeded. Pakistan dismissed the accusation that it had hit a hospital, saying its strikes, which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan, did not hit any civilian sites. In a social media post, Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the strike had hit the hospital in Kabul at about 9pm (local time), destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility. He said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured. Local television stations posted footage on social media showing security forces using flashlights as they carried out casualties while firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building. Fitrat said rescue teams were working to control the fire and recover the bodies. At the site, a blackened single-storey structure bore the marks of flames. In other places, buildings were reduced to heaps of wood and metal, with only a few bunk beds still intact in some, while blankets, personal belongings and bedding were strewn about. “When I arrived [last night], I saw that everything was burning, people were burning,” ambulance driver Haji Fahim said. “Early in the morning they called me again and told me to come back because there are still bodies under the rubble.” The strike came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbours in years entered a third week. Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid condemned the strike on social media, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors”. In a post before the death toll rose into the hundreds, he said those killed and injured were patients at the hospital. “We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he said. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul. In a post on social media, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military had “carried out precision air strikes” targeting military installations in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar. He said “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” at two locations in Kabul were destroyed. “All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies,” he said. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said earlier that Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and aimed at stirring sentiment and cover what it described as “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”. The strike came hours after the UN Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harbouring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan. The Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously, did not name Pakistan but condemns “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks”. The resolution also extends the UN political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months. Pakistan’s government often accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies the charge. Earlier, Afghan officials said four people, including two children, were killed and 10 other people in southeastern Afghanistan were wounded in Monday’s exchange of fire. Mortar shells fired from Pakistan overnight struck villages in Khost province and destroyed several homes, said Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesman for the provincial governor. On Sunday, Pakistan said a mortar fired from Afghanistan hit a house in northwestern Bajaur district, killing four members of a family and wounding two others, including a five-year-old. Residents and officials said the military on Monday targeted Afghan positions along the border, where Sunday’s attack originated. Islamabad has described the situation as an “open war”. The cross-border clashes have included multiple Pakistani air strikes on Kabul. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured several civilians in Pakistan last week. Responding to those attacks, Pakistan’s air force over the weekend struck equipment storage sites and “technical support infrastructure” in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, saying it was being used for attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul said Pakistan hit two locations, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation centre that sustained minor damage. In Kabul, Afghanistan’s administrative Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi overnight said defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens. Speaking during a meeting with political analysts and media figures, Hanafi expressed regret over civilian casualties in recent Pakistani attacks, saying the war was imposed on Afghanistan. The fighting began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Tarar said on Sunday that the military has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a claim rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which says casualties are far lower. Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry and other officials have said Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers. Additional reporting by Reuters

400 killed after Pakistan strikes hit drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Taliban says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Pakistan rejected the accusation, saying its air strikes on eastern Afghanistan did not hit any civilian sites

Pakistan rejected the accusation, saying its air strikes on eastern Afghanistan did not hit any civilian sites