Afghanistan says 400 killed in Pakistan strike on Kabul hospital

(CNN) Afghanistan accused Pakistan of targeting a hospital for drug users in the Afghan capital late Monday, saying the airstrike had killed at least 400 people. It marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have gone unheeded.

Pakistan dismissed the accusation that it had hit a hospital, saying its strikes, which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan, did not hit any civilian sites.

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, in a post on X, said the airstrike had hit the hospital at about 9 p.m. local time, destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility. He said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured.

Local television stations posted footage on X showing security forces using flashlights as they carried out casualties while firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building. Fitrat said rescue teams were working to control the fire and recover the bodies.

The strike came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbors in years entered a third week.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” In a post before the death toll rose into the hundreds, he said those killed and injured were patients at the hospital.

“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he posted.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul.

In a post on X before Afghan officials gave a death toll, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants in Kabul and Nangarhar, saying the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.

It said Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted.” The ministry said Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and aimed at stirring sentiment and cover what it described as ”illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism.”

The strike came hours after the UN Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carries out attacks inside Pakistan.

The Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously, did not name Pakistan but condemns “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks.” The resolution also extends the UN political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months.

Pakistan’s government accuses Afghanistan of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies the charge.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/16/asia/pakistan-afghanistan-strike-hospital-latam-intl