While the world’s attention is on the West Asia conflict, another one continues to play out on the other side of the Iran border. After Pakistan announced an “open war” against Afghanistan in February, the fighting between the two countries has intensified, with Kabul accusing Islamabad of targeting a hospital for de-addiction on Monday (March 16), killing at least 400 people.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the airstrike hit the drug rehabilitation hospital about 9 pm local time, destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility.
This attack, the Taliban notes, is the deadliest in Afghanistan’s history after the suicide bombing at Kabul airport during the US withdrawal in 2021, when at least 169 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members died.
On Monday evening, an airstrike reportedly by Pakistan hit Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, killing 400 people and injuring another 250. According to Fitrat, rescue teams were working to control the fire at the building and recover bodies from the rubble.
Afghanistan’s Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said all parts of the 2,000-bed hospital had been destroyed. Local television stations posted footage showing firefighters struggling to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.