Pakistan Airstrike Kills 400+ at Kabul Hospital Treating Drug Users
An overnight strike on Afghanistan's capital destroyed the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Centre. Pakistan rejected Taliban's account as "false and misleading," claiming it struck only military infrastructure.
📍 Kabul, Afghanistan
Secondary Rehabilitation Services Centre — drug treatment hospital — struck in overnight airstrikes. Rescue teams battling fire at the site.
Afghanistan's Deputy Government spokesman confirmed early Tuesday that the death toll from a Pakistani airstrike on a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital Kabul has risen to at least 400 people, with a further 250 reported injured — making it one of the deadliest single strikes in the long-running cross-border conflict.
In a post on X, Hamdullah Fitrat said the strike on Monday night had destroyed large sections of the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Centre. Rescue teams were trying to control fires at the building and recover the bodies of victims, he added.
"Most of those killed and wounded were patients undergoing treatment at the facility."
— Zabiullah Mujahid, Afghanistan Government SpokesmanPakistan Denies Hitting Civilian Site
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul. In an official statement, Pakistan's Ministry of Information said the strikes "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure" — including equipment storage and ammunition facilities — belonging to Afghan Taliban and Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants in both Kabul and Nangarhar Province.
The Ministry insisted its targeting was "precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage." It described Mujahid's account as "false and misleading" and claimed it was aimed at "stirring sentiment" to cover what it characterized as "illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism."
📅 Key Timeline of Events
Escalation: An "Open War"
Islamabad has described the escalating situation as an "open war." Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan's Taliban administration crossed a "red line" when it deployed drones that injured civilians in Pakistan the previous week. The cross-border clashes have now included multiple Pakistani airstrikes directly on Afghanistan's capital.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces — a claim flatly rejected by Kabul, which says its own casualties are far lower. Afghanistan's Defense Ministry contends it has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers in the ongoing clashes.
"Defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens. This war was imposed on Afghanistan."
— Abdul Salam Hanafi, Afghanistan's Administrative Deputy Prime MinisterBackground: The Pakistani Taliban Factor
At the core of the dispute is a long-standing accusation by Pakistan's government that Afghanistan's Taliban-led administration provides safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), which Washington designates as a terrorist organization, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups whose fighters frequently attack Pakistani security forces and civilians. Kabul has consistently denied this charge.
The UN Security Council, in a resolution adopted unanimously on Monday, stopped short of naming Pakistan but condemned "in the strongest terms all terrorist activity." The resolution also extended the UN political mission in Afghanistan — known as UNAMA — for a further three months.
The fighting began in late February after Afghan forces launched cross-border attacks in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes that Kabul claimed killed civilians. Those clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October 2025, which had halted previous fighting that killed dozens of soldiers, civilians, and suspected militants on both sides.
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