400 killed, Kabul hospital destroyed in ‘deadliest’ incident: What to know about Pakistan strikes

Afghanistan on Monday accused Pakistan of carrying out an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul that it said killed at least 400 people, dramatically escalating a conflict between the two neighbours that has intensified over the past three weeks.

The strike came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their shared border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbours in years entered its third week, according to the Associated Press.

Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the allegation that its airstrikes struck a hospital in Kabul, calling the claim “false and misleading,” according to the country’s information ministry, as reported by Reuters. Islamabad had earlier insisted that its strikes — which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan — did not target civilian sites.

400 killed, 250 injured

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said in a post on X that the airstrike hit the hospital around 9 pm local time, destroying large parts of the 2,000-bed facility.

He said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, with about 250 others reported injured.

Footage shared by local television stations showed security personnel using flashlights as they carried casualties from the site while firefighters tried to extinguish flames amid the building’s ruins.

Fitrat said rescue teams were still working to control the blaze and recover bodies.

Pakistan dismisses the allegations

Pakistan rejected the accusations, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Mosharraf Zaidi, calling them baseless and insisting that no hospital had been targeted in Kabul.

In a post on X made before Afghan officials announced the death toll, the Pakistan Ministry of Information said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure,” including technical equipment and ammunition storage used by the Taliban and Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants in Kabul and Nangarhar Province.

The ministry said the operation was conducted with precision to ensure no civilian casualties and described Kabul’s claims as “false and misleading,” accusing Afghan authorities of trying to stir public sentiment while concealing what it called support for cross-border militancy.

Escalating Pak-Afghan conflict

The strike followed hours of cross-border exchanges of fire along the frontier between the two countries.

The latest round of fighting — the most severe in years — began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians.

The clashes also disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after previous fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.

Pakistan has since declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan, raising international alarm as the region remains home to militant organisations such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, which have sought to re-establish their presence.

On Sunday, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military had killed 684 Taliban fighters, a claim Kabul rejected. Afghan officials, including the defence ministry, say Afghan forces have instead killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of providing safe haven to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan — designated as a terrorist group by the United States — along with Baloch separatist groups and other militants responsible for attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians. Kabul has repeatedly denied those allegations.