Dozens of people are feared dead or injured after an air strike hit a drug treatment centre in Kabul, in an attack the Taliban government has blamed on Pakistan.
The strike occurred on Monday evening, damaging the hospital and leaving a number of people dead while others were wounded, according to a statement posted on X by a government spokesperson.
Pakistan’s information ministry denied that the facility had been targeted, stating instead that its forces had struck military installations and what it described as “terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul and the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar Province.
Parts of the hospital were still burning, and more than 30 bodies were being carried away on stretchers, the BBC reported.
Hospital officials said about 2,000 people had been receiving treatment at the centre at the time of the strike, raising fears that the number of casualties could reach into the hundreds.
Sharafat Zaman Amarkhail, spokesperson for Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health, told the BBC that there are no military facilities near the hospital.
Residents across Kabul reported hearing powerful explosions at around 20:50 local time (16:20 GMT), followed by the sound of aircraft and air defence systems.
Outside the hospital, family members of patients gathered in distress, trying to find information about the fate of their relatives.
The latest incident comes amid renewed tensions between the neighbouring countries. The conflict reignited last month after Pakistan accused Afghanistan of harbouring militant groups — an allegation the Taliban government denies.
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, at least 75 people have been killed and 193 injured in Afghanistan since 26 February as a result of cross-border fighting.
The violence follows months of clashes between the two sides, despite an agreement on a fragile ceasefire reached in October.
