Kabul: Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said a Pakistan military airstrike hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in the capital, Kabul, early on Monday, killing 400 people and injuring more than 250.
According to the Taliban administration, large parts of the 2,000-bed facility were destroyed, and patients undergoing treatment were among the worst affected. Many victims were reported trapped under debris.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid alleged that Pakistani warplanes violated Afghan airspace and deliberately targeted the hospital, calling it a breach of humanitarian rules and condemning the attack.
Pakistan rejected the accusation. Its Information and Broadcasting Ministry said its forces carried out “precision strikes” only on militant camps and military targets in Kabul and Nangarhar, and that reports of a hospital being hit were false.
The incident comes amid three weeks of clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, following Pakistan’s operations against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, a group Islamabad says has carried out attacks from Afghan soil.
