Afghanistan has claimed 400 people have been killed in a Pakistan strike which Kabul said hit a hospital that treats drug addicts.
Pakistan had earlier dismissed the claim it had attacked a hospital in the capital, saying its strike in Kabul and other strikes in eastern Afghanistan on Monday had not hit any civilian sites.
The Taliban’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that 400 were killed, and 250 others were injured.
Sharafat Zaman, the country’s health ministry spokesman, earlier gave the death toll as more than 200 during an interview with state TV, posted on X, and claimed all parts of the drug treatment facility had been destroyed.
He added that in total, 3,000 drug users were under treatment at the centre during the attack.
Afghan television stations posted footage showing firefighters struggling to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
Mosharraf Zaidi, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, has denied the claims and said the strikes did not hit any civilian sites.
Pakistan’s information ministry also said in a statement that the military’s strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and other militants in Kabul and Nangarhar.
It added that the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians, and also said “false and misleading” claims that the site was struck were intended to stir sentiment and cover “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”.
Pakistan declared that it was in “open war” with Afghanistan on 27 February, almost a week after its military carried out limited airstrikes on 21 February.
Islamabad often accuses Afghanistan, where the Taliban seized power again in August 2021, of harbouring militants who carry out terror attacks. The Taliban denies this.