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Bulldozers dug pits successful a cemetery successful the Afghan superior up of a wide ceremonial connected Wednesday (March 18, 2026) for immoderate of the victims of what officials person said was a Pakistani airstrike that deed a cause rehabilitation hospital successful Kabul earlier this week.
The onslaught was the deadliest successful an escalating struggle betwixt the 2 neighbours, present successful its 3rd week. Afghan officials person enactment the decease toll astatine 408 people, with 265 wounded. The toll could not beryllium independently verified.
Pakistan rejects Afghanistan's accusation that it targeted the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, insisting its strikes successful Kabul and eastbound Afghanistan connected Monday (March 16, 2026) had been against subject facilities. It has dismissed Afghan claims of hundreds of casualties arsenic propaganda.
In an interrogation with The Associated Press successful Islamabad connected Wednesday, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan had "only targeted violent infrastructure.” “We person conscionable gone aft the Afghan Taliban regime, their subject setups, their violent infrastructure, and each the setups which are supporting oregon promoting terrorists,” Mr. Tarar said.
The struggle betwixt Afghanistan and Pakistan has seen repeated cross-border clashes arsenic good arsenic airstrikes wrong Afghanistan, including respective successful the capital, since it began successful precocious February, contempt planetary calls for a ceasefire.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing a harmless haven for militants who transportation retired attacks wrong Pakistan, particularly for the Pakistani Taliban. The radical is abstracted but intimately allied with the Afghan Taliban, who took implicit Afghanistan successful 2021 successful the aftermath of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.
On Wednesday, airy rainfall fell arsenic ambulances lined up extracurricular the cemetery and began unloading plain woody caskets. The wide ceremonial was for victims who were from the state of Kabul and whose bodies had already been identified. Victims from elsewhere successful Afghanistan would beryllium transported to their location provinces for burial, authorities said.
The 2,000-bed Omid infirmary was deed astatine astir 9 p.m. connected Monday. It had been renamed and expanded successful size astir a twelvemonth agone from a antecedently existing attraction installation arsenic portion of the Taliban government's efforts to stamp retired a important cause addiction occupation successful the country.
Afghanistan's immense poppy fields person been the root of overmuch of the world's heroin, and that, successful operation with decades of struggle and wide poverty, has fuelled cause addiction that the country's existent rulers person vowed to combat.
The site, adjacent Kabul's planetary airport, is adjacent to a erstwhile NATO subject base, Camp Phoenix, wherever U.S. forces utilized to bid the Afghan National Army. It wasn't instantly wide what was present housed astatine the site. The onslaught caused an aggravated occurrence astatine the hospitals, with footage from section tv showing rescue crews combing done the wreckage with flashlights precocious into Monday nighttime arsenic firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze.
Mr. Tarar said Pakistan's strikes “have been precise precise and these strikes were carried retired successful an ammunition depot successful Kabul. In the aftermath of which, we saw fumes and flames successful the ambiance successful Kabul." He said the consequent nonaccomplishment of life, which helium did not quantify, occurred “because determination was ammunition, determination were method equipment, determination were arms determination successful that depot.” Bodies were inactive being pulled from the smoldering remains of the infirmary connected Tuesday morning.
Afghan authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” He said those killed were “innocent civilians and addicts.” The fighting, the astir terrible betwixt the 2 neighbors, began successful precocious February aft Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks successful effect to Pakistani airstrikes. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar successful October, aft earlier warring killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistan has declared it's successful “open war” with Afghanistan past month. The struggle has alarmed the planetary community, peculiarly arsenic the country is 1 wherever different militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, inactive person a beingness and person been trying to resurface.
