More than 100 people have been killed in an air strike on a drug treatment centre in Afghanistan’s capital that the Taliban government blames on Pakistan, forensic laboratory sources told the BBC.
Some of the bodies were injured beyond recognition, sources at the Kabul Forensic Medicine department said. Taliban officials have put casualty figures much higher.
The centre was reduced to a blazing ruin on Monday evening. Pakistan denied striking any healthfacility, saying it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.
The cross-border conflict re-erupted last month. Pakistan says Afghanistan harbours militants who attack its territory, which Kabul denies.
Some 2,000 people were being treated at the rehab centre, according to officials at the facility, who believe there could be hundreds of casualties.
The Afghan health ministry’s spokesman, Sharafat Zaman Amarkhail, told the BBC there were no military facilities near the rehabilitation centre.
Residents reported hearing loud explosions across Kabul at around 20:50 local time (16:20 GMT), followed by the sound of aircraft and air defence systems.
Family members of those being treated at the centrewere gathered outside, desperately trying to find out information about their loved ones.
A Taliban government spokesperson claimed the death toll had reached at least 400, but the BBC has not independently verified the numbers. A BBC reporter at the scene saw more than 30 bodies carried out on stretchers on Monday evening.
Pakistan’s information ministry said the strikes in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar were “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted”.
It dismissed Afghanistan’s claim as a “misreporting of facts… [that] seeks to stir sentiments, covering illegitimate support to cross-border terrorism”.
Formerly a US military base, the area where the strike occurred was a notorious hangout for drug users. When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they turned the space into a drug rehabilitation centre, housing users rounded up from across the capital.
Rescuers continued to search for survivors into Tuesday. In the morning, the extent of the damage – flattened debris littered with blankets and shoes beside charred, blown-out windows – was visible.
The latest violence follows months of clashes, despite the two sides agreeing to a fragile ceasefire in October.
At least 75 people have been killed and 193 injured in Afghanistan as a result of continuing cross-border fighting between the countries since 26 February, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama).
China, which has tried to cool tensions, said its foreign minister Wang Yi has spoken to his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts over the phone in the past week.
Calling for a ceasefire “at the earliest opportunity”, Beijing on Monday urged the two countries to “remain calm and exercise restraint [and to] engage face to face ASAP”.
