Rescue teams recover bodies after deadly Kabul hospital air strike

Afghan official condemns Pakistan air strike, calling it a crime against humanity targeting civilians and addicts.

A survivor is treated in an ambulance at the site of a late-Monday air strike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
Rescue teams have recovered more bodies from the demolished Kabul drug rehabilitation hospital following an overnight air strike that claimed more than 400 lives, according to officials.

The attack marked a dramatic intensification in the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has intensified in the last three weeks.

Pakistan rejected Afghanistan’s claims about the hospital strike, insisting its Monday operations in eastern Afghanistan targeted only military installations.

Pakistani officials dismissed the reported death count as propaganda.

The injured and deceased were taken to multiple local hospitals, where crowds of people searched desperately for family members.

Independent confirmation of casualty figures remains impossible.

The conflict has escalated through repeated border skirmishes and air strikes within Afghanistan, despite international calls for a ceasefire.

This latest attack came just hours after Afghan officials reported border clashes that killed four people in Afghanistan.

The conflict stems from an enduring and contentious dispute over the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), an armed group that Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of sheltering.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike, claiming Pakistan was “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” He emphasised that those killed were “innocent civilians and addicts.”
“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he said in a separate post on X.

Rescue worker Allah Mohammad Farooq reported hundreds killed.

“When we arrived here, everyone was buried under the rubble,” he said.

“We then used a crane to pull them out.

Most of the people were dead, and many are still trapped under the debris.”
Near the attack site, Haji Najibullah wept while explaining that his son and relatives were receiving treatment at the hospital.

“We have no information about who is alive and who is buried under the rubble,” he said.

“Only God knows who may have survived and who may be injured.”
Richard Bennet, a UN human rights expert in Afghanistan, wrote on X that he was “dismayed by fresh reports of #Pakistan airstrikes in #Afghanistan and resulting civilian casualties.” Offering his condolences, he added: “I urge parties to de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint & respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals.”
Taliban rescue team member Allah Mohammad Farooq inspects the site of a airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
The attack on Kabul’s Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital took place at about 9pm local time (16:30 GMT) on Monday.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
Afghanistan and Pakistan have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing its neighbour of harbouring armed groups that have mounted deadly cross-border attacks.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
The latest round of violence that began last month⁠, two days before the world’s focus shifted sharply to the US-Israel war on Iran, is the worst ever between the neighbours.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
Pakistan denied Afghan claims that its latest attack targeted civilians, instead insisting that it carried out precision strikes on “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
The health authorities said there were about 3,000 patients from across Afghanistan at the clinic at the time of the attack, which triggered panic in Kabul just after residents had broken their daily Ramadan fast.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
A spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior Affairs said on Tuesday that the attack killed 408 people and injured 265.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]
Witnesses said they heard three explosions just as people in the hospital were completing evening prayers.

Two of the bombs struck rooms and patient areas, they said.

[Siddiqullah Alizai/AP Photo]