Afghanistan’s government has said that an airstrike by Pakistan hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in the capital Kabul late on Monday, killing at least 400 people.
In a post on X, Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the airstrike had hit the hospital in Kabul at about 9 pm local time, destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility. He said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, with around 250 reportedly injured.
In a post before the death toll rose into the hundreds, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that those killed and injured were patients at the hospital.
Pakistan has rejected the accusation, saying that strikes by its military conducted in eastern Afghanistan did not land on civilian sites.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X early on Tuesday that the Pakistani military had “carried out precision airstrikes” targetting 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.
The incident came after Afghan authorities said the two sides exchanged fire along the border, resulting in the deaths of four people in Afghanistan.
It also took place hours after the UN Security Council called on Afganistan’s Taliban rulers to intensify efforts to combat terrorism. Islamabad has accused Kabul of harbouring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The latest marks an escalation of a conflict that began between the two countries late last month, and has seen a series of cross-border clashes in addition to airstrikes inside Afghanistan. The fighting began after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside the country, which Kabul claimed had killed civilians.
The hostilities disrupted a ceasefire which had been brokered by Qatar in October, after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.