Kabul hospital strike: Afghanistan claims Pakistan attack left hundreds dead

Around 400 people were reported dead, most of them patients, after a devastating airstrike struck Kabul on Monday night, with Afghanistan accusing Pakistan of carrying out the attack on a major medical facility in the city (Source: Photo by AP)

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the strike hit the Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital at around 9 PM local time, causing widespread destruction across the 2,000-bed facility (Source: Photo by AP)

Large sections of the hospital were reduced to rubble in the attack, with reports indicating that nearly 250 people were injured as emergency responders worked through the debris (Source: Photo by AP)

Fitrat described the aftermath as catastrophic, stating that the hospital, once a place of recovery, had been turned into a site of mass casualties following the strike (Source: Photo by AP)

Pakistan, however, denied carrying out any attack on a hospital in Kabul, with officials stating that their operations were limited to precise strikes on military installations and what they described as terrorist support infrastructure (Source: Photo by AP)

The escalation follows weeks of rising tensions, which began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes that Kabul said had killed civilians (Source: Photo by AP)

The renewed hostilities effectively disrupted a Qatar-brokered ceasefire reached earlier, which had temporarily halted clashes that resulted in casualties among soldiers, civilians, and suspected militants on both sides (Source: Photo by AP)

Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban and Baloch separatist groups, allegations that Kabul has consistently denied amid the growing diplomatic standoff (Source: Photo by AP)

The situation worsened after Pakistan alleged that drone activity from Afghan territory had injured civilians, triggering a series of retaliatory strikes that intensified the conflict between the two sides (Source: Photo by AP)

With Pakistan declaring an “open war” situation and Afghanistan condemning the hospital strike as a grave violation, international concerns have mounted over the risk of a broader regional conflict, as ceasefire calls continue to go unheeded (Source: Photo by AP)