At least 400 people have been killed in an air strike that is said to have ‘targeted a hospital for drug users’ in a dramatic escalation of conflict and repeated cross-border clashes
02:09, 17 Mar 2026Updated 02:12, 17 Mar 2026
The air strike ‘targeted an Afghanistan hospital treating drug users’(Image: AP)
At least 400 people have reportedly been killed in an air strike that targeted a hospital for drug users.
Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of targeting the hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul.
It marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as air strikes inside Afghanistan.
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International calls for a ceasefire have gone ignored.
Pakistan claimed that its strikes which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan, did not hit any civilian sites and dismiss Afghanistan’s accusation.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, in a post on X, said the air strike had hit the hospital at about 9pm local time, destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility.
He said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, with about another 250 people reported injured.
Footage posted by local TV stations on X showed security forces using torches as they carried out casualties while firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
Mr 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 neighbours in years entered a third week.
Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors”.
Zabihullah Mujahid(Image: STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
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, 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 Mr 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 harbouring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry 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 often accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, 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.
Earlier, Afghan officials said four people, including two children, were killed and 10 other people in south-eastern Afghanistan were wounded in Monday’s exchange of fire.
Villages were struck overnight in Khost Province with several homes destroyed, said Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
Taliban fighters check skies for fighter jets(Image: AP)
Four members of a family were killed on Sunday as Pakistan said a mortar fired from Afghanistan hit a house in north-western Bajaur district, leaving two more wounded, including a five-year-old.
Residents and officials said the military on Monday targeted Afghan positions along the border, where Sunday’s attack originated.
Pakistan have repeatedly said that its military only targets Afghan posts and militant hideouts.
The situation has been described by Islamabad as an “open war”.
The cross-border clashes have included multiple Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured several civilians in Pakistan last week.
Responding to those attacks, Pakistan’s air force over the weekend struck equipment storage sites and “technical support infrastructure” in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, saying it was being used for attacks inside Pakistan.
Kabul said Pakistan hit two locations, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation centre that sustained minor damage.
In Kabul, Afghanistan’s administrative deputy prime minister Abdul Salam Hanafi overnight said defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens.
Speaking during a meeting with political analysts and media figures, Mr Hanafi expressed regret over civilian casualties in recent Pakistani attacks, saying the war was imposed on Afghanistan.
Cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians kicked off the fighting in late February.
The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistani information minister Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday that the military has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a claim rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which says casualties are far lower.
Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry and other officials have said Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
