Hundreds were reportedly killed or injured after an airstrike struck a drug treatment centre in Kabul, which the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan.
Afghan officials said the attack, which killed 400 people, is the deadliest in the country since the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport during the US withdrawal, when 169 Afghan civilians and 13 US troops died.
The strike marks a sharp escalation in a conflict that reignited late last month, with repeated cross-border clashes and air raids inside Afghanistan, reports NDTV.
Calls for a ceasefire from the international community have so far gone unanswered.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the strike hit the 2,000-bed hospital around 9pm, destroying large sections of the facility. He reported 400 deaths and 250 injuries, adding that rescue teams were still recovering bodies.
Local TV footage showed security forces carrying casualties by flashlight as firefighters battled flames in the wreckage.
Government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid condemned the attack, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” He called the strike “a crime against humanity.”
On the other hand, Pakistan’s Information Ministry denied hitting the hospital, insisting its strikes targeted “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul and Nangarhar.
It said operations were “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage.” Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman dismissed Kabul’s allegations as “baseless.”
Hours before the Kabul strike, Afghan officials reported border clashes that killed four people. The renewed fighting began last month after Afghan forces retaliated against Pakistani airstrikes that Kabul said killed civilians, breaking a Qatar-brokered ceasefire from October.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, Baloch separatists, and other militants who attack its forces. Kabul denies the charge.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s Information Minister declared the country in “open war” with Afghanistan, claiming 684 Afghan Taliban fighters had been killed, a figure Afghanistan disputes, saying it has inflicted heavy losses on Pakistani troops.
