Afghan govt says 'around 400' killed in Pakistani strike on Kabul rehab centre
The Afghan government said on Tuesday that about 400 people were killed in a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the capital, Kabul, in the deadliest attack in the recent violence between the two neighbours.
Hundreds more were said to have been wounded at the facility, which was hit Monday night, flattening buildings used to treat people from across the country for addictions to marijuana, amphetamines and other narcotics.
There was no immediate independent verification of the toll, but AFP reporters saw at least 30 bodies taken from the site in the chaotic and smouldering aftermath of the attack on Monday night.
They then saw more than 65 removed on Tuesday as rescuers picked through the rubble searching for victims and survivors.
"The toll is not final as the rescue operation is still going on, but we have around 400 martyrs and more than 200 wounded," said health ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman.
Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani gave a toll of "408 killed and 265 wounded" at the same briefing.
Afghan authorities have asked families of those killed to accept their relatives being buried in a mass grave.
In Geneva, UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan called for a swift, independent investigation into the strike, with those responsible "held to account in line with international standards".
But Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Taliban government claims that Pakistan deliberately targeted the clinic were "entirely baseless".
"No hospital, no drug rehabilitation centre, and no civilian facility was targeted," he wrote on X.
"The targets were military and terrorist infrastructure, including ammunition and technical equipment storage sites and other installations linked to hostile activity against Pakistan."
Late Tuesday, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that Afghanistan does not want war but would continue "proportionate and legitimate defensive measures until the other side ceases its violations".
The two sides have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing its neighbour of harbouring Islamist extremists who have mounted deadly cross-border attacks on its territory.
- Search for survivors -
Chairs, blankets, pieces of hospital beds and human remains could be seen in the blackened ruins of the rehabilitation centre on Tuesday.
Crowds gathered outside as family members sought news of their loved ones while rescuers picked through the rubble nearby.
Habibullah Kabulbai, 55, arrived at the centre on Monday night, hoping to find his brother, Nawroz, who was admitted five days ago.
"I can't find him," he said, weeping. "What should we do? I have no words... We are helpless. This has not only happened to me but the whole of Afghanistan."
Monday evening's attack triggered panic in Kabul, sending people running for cover as anti-aircraft guns fired back not long after they had broken their daily Ramadan fast.
"I heard the sound of the jet patrolling," Omid Stanikzai, 31, a security guard at the drug treatment centre, told AFP.
"There were military units all around us. When these military units fired on the jet, the jet dropped bombs and a fire broke out."
All of the dead and wounded were civilians, he added.
Pakistan's Tarar said the six strikes conducted on Monday also hit the eastern border province of Nangarhar, calling them "precise, deliberate, and professional".
– 'Devastating impact' –
The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, said his organisation "saw firsthand the devastating impact on civilians and the hospital".
"Civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be targeted," he wrote on X.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had delivered emergency medical supplies after "hundreds were left wounded" in the attack.
At least 76 civilians had been killed in Afghanistan due to the hostilities between February 26 and Monday before the strike, according to the United Nations mission in the country (UNAMA).
The UN mission called for "an immediate ceasefire", while Beijing, which had dispatched a special envoy to mediate between the two countries before the Monday strikes, pledged to "play a constructive role in de-escalating tensions".
Pakistan's arch-foe India called Monday's attack "a cowardly and unconscionable act of violence" that threatened regional peace and stability.
The EU called for "maximum restraint" from both Afghanistan and Pakistan, describing the strike on the Kabul medical facility as "a new and deadly escalation" of the conflict.
P.King--VC
