400 killed in Pakistani airstrike on hospital in Afghanistan
Pakistan’s military has carried out an airstrike on a hospital in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The Taliban-controlled Afghan government claims that at least 400 people were killed in the attack conducted on Monday evening. However, Pakistan has denied the allegation, stating that it only targeted specific military installations. Qatar-based media outlet Al Jazeera reported this news.
Deputy spokesperson of the Taliban government of Afghanistan, Hamdullah Fitrat, said in a post on social media platform X that the attack took place at around 9 PM local time on Monday at the Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul. A large portion of the 2,000-bed hospital has been destroyed.
Hamdullah Fitrat stated that, unfortunately, the death toll has reached 400 so far, and at least 250 people have been injured. Rescue teams are currently working at the scene to control the fire and recover bodies from the debris.
Videos broadcast on local television channels showed firefighters making desperate efforts to extinguish the fire spreading through the rubble. Hospital security guard Omid Stanikzai told AFP that he had heard fighter jets patrolling overhead before the attack. He said there were military units nearby. When they fired at the aircraft, bombs were dropped in response, which triggered the fire. All the dead and injured were civilians.
Another Afghan government spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, strongly condemned the attack, calling it a “crime against humanity.” He said Pakistan once again violated Afghanistan’s airspace to carry out this strike.
On the other hand, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as “baseless.” In a statement, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said that their strike was precise and targeted only military installations and terrorist infrastructure. Pakistan claims that those sites were being used against its civilian population and that there were no civilian casualties in the operation.
Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and Baloch separatists. However, Kabul has consistently denied these allegations.
The ongoing conflict between the two neighboring countries has taken a severe turn in recent years. For the past three weeks, there has been an exchange of cross-border shelling. On Monday alone, four Afghan civilians, including two children, were killed in border clashes. Last month, after Pakistan launched airstrikes, Afghanistan responded with retaliatory attacks.
