Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of carrying out strikes in Kabul targeting hospital treating addicts
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing a minimum of 400 folks in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital late Monday. It marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late final month and have seen repeated cross-border clashes in addition to airstrikes inside Afghanistan. International requires a ceasefire have gone unheeded.
Pakistan dismissed the accusation that it had hit a hospital, saying its strikes, which had been additionally carried out in japanese Afghanistan, didn’t hit any civilian websites.
Afghanistan’s deputy authorities spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat, in a put up on He stated the dying toll had “so far” reached 400 folks, whereas about 250 folks had been reported injured.
Local tv stations posted footage on X exhibiting safety forces utilizing flashlights as they carried out casualties whereas firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the many ruins of a constructing. Fitrat stated rescue groups had been working to manage the hearth and recuperate the our bodies.
The strike got here hours after Afghan officers stated the 2 sides exchanged fire alongside their frequent border, killing 4 folks in Afghanistan, because the deadliest combating among the many neighbors in years entered a third week.
Afghan authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” In a put up earlier than the dying toll rose into the a whole lot, he stated these killed and injured had been sufferers on the hospital.
“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” I posted.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesperson, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was focused in Kabul.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X in the early hours Tuesday that the Pakistani navy had “carried out precision airstrikes” targeting navy installations in Kabul and the japanese province of Nangarhar. He stated “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” at two areas in Kabul had been destroyed.
“All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by the Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies,” he wrote.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information stated earlier that Mujahid’s declare was “false and misleading” and aimed toward stirring sentiment and masking what it described as “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism.” It stated Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted.”
The strike got here hours after the UN Security Council referred to as on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to instantly step up efforts to fight terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militant groupssignificantly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry out assaults inside Pakistan.
The Security Council decision, adopted unanimously, didn’t refer particularly to assaults carried out in Pakistan however condemns “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks.” The decision additionally extends the UN political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for 3 months.
Pakistan’s authorities accuses Afghanistan of offering protected haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, in addition to to outlawed Baloch separatist teams and different militants who regularly goal Pakistani safety forces and civilians throughout the nation. Kabul denies the cost.
The combating — essentially the most extreme between the 2 neighbors — started in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border assaults in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul stated killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar In October after earlier combating killed dozens of troopers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistan has declared it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan. The battle has alarmed the worldwide neighborhood, significantly as the world is one the place different militant organizations, together with al-Qaida and the Islamic State groupnonetheless have a presence and have been making an attempt to resurface.
On Sunday, Tarar stated the navy has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a declare rejected by Afghanistan, which says casualties are far decrease. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry and different officers have stated Afghanistan has killed greater than 100 Pakistani troopers.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stated Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured a number of civilians in Pakistan final week.
Responding to these assaults, Pakistan’s air pressure over the weekend struck tools storage websites and “technical support infrastructure” in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, saying it was getting used for assaults inside Pakistan. Kabul stated Pakistan hit two areas, together with an empty safety web site and a drug rehabilitation heart that sustained minor harm.
In Kabul, Afghanistan’s administrative Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi stated defending sovereignty is the responsibility of all residents. Speaking throughout a gathering with political analysts and media figures, Hanafi expressed remorse over civilian casualties in latest Pakistani assaults, saying the warfare was imposed on Afghanistan.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad and Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer on the United Nations and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed.
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