A Pakistani attack on a hospital in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, killed at least 400 people and injured another 250, a Taliban spokesperson said early Tuesday.
Afghanistan's deputy government spokesperson, Hamdullah Fitrat, said the attack targeted the drug rehabilitation center around 9 p.m. local time, demolishing substantial areas of the 2,000-bed facility.
Pakistan refuted the Afghan government's charges, calling them "baseless," and claimed that no hospital in Kabul was targeted.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesperson, criticized the strike, accusing Pakistan of "targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors"."The Pakistani military regime has once again violated Afghanistan's airspace and targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, resulting in the death and injury of addicts who were undergoing treatment," he wrote to X.We strongly condemn this crime and believe it violates all established standards and is a crime against humanity," he added.
Pakistan's Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, stated that the Pakistani military had "carried out precision airstrikes" against military targets in Kabul and the eastern region of Nangarhar.
He stated that "technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities" at two locations in Kabul had been damaged."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," according to his post on X.
The purported incident came hours after Afghan officials claimed the two forces traded fire along their shared border, killing four people in Afghanistan as the bloodiest fighting between the neighbors in years entered its third week.
The combat started in late February, when Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in reaction to Pakistani bombings within Afghanistan, which Kabul said killed civilians.
The skirmishes shattered a cease-fire negotiated by Qatar last October, following prior fighting that killed scores of soldiers, civilians, and suspected terrorists.
Pakistan's Defence Minister, Khawaja Asif, has declared a "open war" with Afghanistan.