Mar 17, 2026, 2:16 p.mMar 17, 2026, 2:16 p.m
Pakistan denies targeting a hospital in its attack in the Afghan capital Kabul.
In a statement on
The Afghan Taliban regime is peddling yet another falsehood by alleging that Pakistan targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul. This claim is entirely baseless.
Pakistan, in its ongoing war against terrorism, is engaging only those military and terrorist targets, along…
— Attaullah Tarar (@TararAttaullah) March 17, 2026
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) writes that the Omid rehabilitation clinic was affected by a Pakistani air strike on Kabul. An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman told reporters at the scene of the attack that 408 people were killed and 265 were injured in attacks. The information provided by the two parties to the conflict could not initially be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Tarar shared videos of air strikes on X. Infrastructure for technical support and ammunition depots at two locations in Kabul were destroyed. Secondary detonations can be seen in the videos, which indicate the presence of large ammunition depots, the minister wrote.
The site of the attack in Kabul.Image: keystone
Military facility converted into clinic
The British broadcaster BBC describes the affected area as a former US military installation. The Taliban converted the facility into a clinic after they came to power in 2021. Drug addicts from the capital were brought there, the station reports.
A patient wounded in the explosions told the Afghan broadcaster Tolonews: “The (Taliban) recruiting center is right next to us. We saw them shooting from there. Planes circled overhead; they flew by once, and when they returned the second time, the recruiting center opened fire on them. When the (pilot) saw us with the camera, he probably thought everyone here was part of the recruiting center. When he saw the large crowd, he suddenly began the bombardment.
A Pakistani government official told the German Press Agency this morning: “We will not interrupt our attacks. We don’t want to lose the momentum of the operation, even though it might have failed.”
On X, the Pakistani Ministry of Information wrote that the hospital hit was several kilometers away from the attacked “Camp Phoenix”. The article also asked the question why a rehabilitation clinic was located in the immediate vicinity of ammunition depots. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Rescue work is ongoing
The clinic in question is said to have 2,000 beds. The day after the attacks, emergency services remain on site. More than 50 bodies could still be buried under the rubble, a medical worker told Tolonews broadcaster. There will be a mass funeral for the victims in the afternoon (local time).
Just a few days ago, Pakistan attacked targets in Afghanistan. According to Unama, air strikes in Kabul resulted in deaths and injuries. As of Monday’s attack, at least 76 civilians had been killed and 213 injured in the conflict in Afghanistan since the end of February, Unama said.
Afghanistan had recently also attacked targets in Pakistan, for example in the capital Islamabad. Pakistan accuses the Islamist Taliban in Kabul of supporting terrorists who carry out attacks in Pakistan. Kabul rejects this. (dab/sda/dpa)