By Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad
KABUL, March 17 (Reuters) – More than 400 people were killed and 265 wounded in an airstrike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, a spokesperson of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, in the deadliest incident since fighting between the two began in October last year.
Pakistan rejected the statement as false and misleading and said it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” on Monday night.
The airstrike on Kabul came hours after China said it was ready to continue efforts to ease tensions and urged both states to return to negotiations.
The conflict is the worst between the South Asian Islamic neighbours, who share a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border.
DRUG REHAB CENTRE USED TO BE NATO TRAINING BASE
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban, said in a post on X the airstrike took place at 9 p.m. (1630 GMT) on Monday and targeted the state-run Omid Hospital, which he said was a 2,000-bed drug rehabilitation centre.
The Pakistani information ministry said Omid Hospital was miles away from Camp Phoenix, a “military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site” that it said it had targeted.
“The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X.
Kabul residents, including a Reuters journalist, said Camp Phoenix, an abandoned NATO military base in the city, was converted into a drug treatment centre about a decade ago, and locals referred to it as Omid Camp, or “camp of hope”, although its official name was “Ibn Sina Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital”.
It was this centre that had been hit, they said, adding that Omid Hospital and Omid Camp were not related.
Fighting between the former close allies intensified last month with Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan that Islamabad said targeted militant strongholds.
Islamabad says Kabul provides a safe haven to militants launching attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban deny the allegation, saying tackling militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
‘IT WAS LIKE DOOMSDAY’, SAYS A SURVIVOR
At the site of the airstrike, a blackened single-storey structure bore the marks of flames. In other places, buildings were reduced to heaps of wood and metal, with only a few bunk beds still intact, while blankets, personal belongings and bedding were strewn about.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qanie said 408 people were killed and 265 wounded. Afghan authorities said they were taken to hospitals around Kabul but did not give details of how casualties were counted.
Those killed were mostly civilians and addicts, added Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.
Reuters could not verify the casualty numbers. Both sides have claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on the other during the conflict but independent verification has not been possible.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, an independent aid group, said its staff had seen large numbers of casualties.
“We visited the hospital treating addicts in Kabul this morning and found hundreds of civilians dead and injured,” it said in a statement. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be targeted.”
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement that dozens had been killed and injured and called for immediate de-escalation.
Witnesses said they heard three bombs exploding just as people in the centre were completing evening prayers, and that two of them struck rooms and patient areas.
“The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday,” said Ahmad, 50, who said he was being treated at the facility. “My friends were burning in the fire, and we could not save them all.”
Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s prime minister, said on X that the Afghan reference to drug users being targeted was “lies” and Pakistan’s “counterterrorism operations” would continue for as long as it took to eliminate “terrorists and their infrastructure”.
“All military operations will continue till such time as there is a change in the behavior and the ground reality in Afghan Taliban regime-controlled territory,” Zaidi told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.
Zaidi said Pakistan conducted a total of six strikes on Afghanistan on Monday night, including at Camp Phoenix, which he said was used by the Afghan Taliban to “train terrorists and store weapons”.
He declined to provide any estimate of casualties and said Pakistan would not engage with death toll figures reported by Afghan authorities or aid groups.
CHINA APPEALS FOR CALM, INDIA CONDEMNS STRIKE
China again appealed for restraint and called for the safety of Chinese personnel and interests in the region.
Pakistan’s arch-rival India, which has recently forged close ties with the Afghan Taliban, condemned the strike.
The conflict had ebbed amid efforts by friendly countries including China to mediate, but flared again just days before the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul, Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Additional reporting by Sayed Hassib in Kabul, Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi and Laurie Chen in Beijing; Writing by YP Rajesh and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alex Richardson, Alexandra Hudson)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.