KABUL, Mar 17: More than 400 people were killed and 265 wounded in an airstrike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbours.
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 came hours after China said it remained ready to continue efforts to ease tensions between the South Asian Islamic nations and urged both to avoid expanding the war and return to the negotiating table.
The conflict that began last month is the worst between the neighbours, who share a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border.
HamdullahFitrat, 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, the "military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site" that it said was targeted.
"The visible secondary detonations ?after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots," Pakistani Information Minister AttaullahTarar 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".
AFP adds, Crowds gathered on Tuesday outside a drug treatment centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in a bid for news of their loved ones after it was hit in a Pakistani air strike.
AFP reporters counted at least 30 bodies being removed from the rubble of the facility and saw medics treating dozens of wounded in the chaotic and smouldering aftermath of the attack on Monday night.
The Taliban authorities said the death toll could be in the hundreds.
At first light, chairs, blankets, pieces of hospital beds and human remains could be seen in the blackened ruins of the building.
BaryalaiAmiri, a 38-year-old mechanic, came to the site where his brother was admitted about 25 days ago.
"We are not given the proper information," he told AFP, as rescuers picked through the rubble nearby. "So far, we don't know where he is." �"REUTERS, AFP
