By Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad
KABUL, March 17 (Reuters) - Over 400 people were killed and 250 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbours.
Pakistan rejected the claim as false and misleading and said it "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure" on Monday night.
"The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots," Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X.
The air strike came hours after China said it remained ready to continue efforts to ease tensions between the South Asian Islamic nations and urged both to avoid expanding the war and return to the negotiating table.
The conflict that began last month is the worst ever between the neighbours who share a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border. It had ebbed amid attempts by friendly countries, including China, to mediate and end the fighting before flaring up again, this time just days before the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The escalation comes amid wider instability in the neighbourhood where the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran's retaliation have plunged the Middle East into a crisis.
IT WAS LIKE DOOMSDAY, SAYS A SURVIVOR
At the site, a blackened single-storey structure bore the marks of flames. In other places, buildings were reduced to heaps of wood and metal, with only a few bunk beds still intact in some, while blankets, personal belongings and bedding were strewn about.
Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qanie said 408 people were killed and 265 injured. Afghan authorities said the dead and the wounded were taken to hospitals around Kabul but did not give details of how many bodies had been recovered and how the casualties had been counted.
Residents said the hospital was at a site where a military base was previously located.
Witnesses said they heard three bombs exploding just as people in the hospital were completing evening prayers and two of them struck rooms and patient areas.
"The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday," said Ahmad, 50, who said he was under treatment at the facility and gave only his first name. "My friends were burning in the fire, and we could not save them all."
Visuals from local media taken overnight showed flames engulfing a single-storey building, while thick smoke billowed from another section of the same complex and workers took away bodies on stretchers.
"When I arrived (last night), I saw that everything was burning, people were burning," ambulance driver Haji Fahim told Reuters. "Early in the morning they called me again and told me to come back because there are still bodies under the rubble."
'CONSTANT LIES,' SAYS PAKISTAN
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban, said the air strike took place at 9 p.m. (1630 GMT) on Monday and targeted the state-run Omid hospital, which he said was a 2,000-bed drug rehabilitation centre.
"Large parts of the hospital have been destroyed, and there are fears of heavy casualties," he said in a post on X. "Sadly, the number of those killed has so far reached 400, with up to 250 others injured."
Rescue teams were at the scene working to control the fire and recover the victims, Fitrat said.
Those killed were mostly innocent civilians and addicts, added Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Reuters could not verify the casualty numbers. Through the conflict, both sides have claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on the other but independent verification has not been possible.
The spokesman for Pakistan's prime minister called the Afghan reference to drug users being targeted as "constant lies" and said Pakistan's "counter-terrorism operations" would continue for as long as it took to eliminate "terrorists and their infrastructure".
CHINA APPEALS FOR CALM, INDIA CONDEMNS STRIKE
The Omid hospital was established in 2016 and has treated hundreds of people, also providing them with vocational training such as tailoring and carpentry to make them more employable, according to local media reports.
China once again appealed for calm and restraint and also to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in the region.
“China … will continue to play a constructive role through its own channels to de-escalate tensions and improve relations between the two countries," said Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesman.
Giant neighbour India, a nuclear-armed rival of Pakistan that has recently forged close ties with the Afghan Taliban, said it unequivocally condemns the strike on the hospital.
“That this attack was carried out during the holy month of Ramzan, a time of peace, reflection, and mercy among Muslim communities across the world, makes it all the more reprehensible,” the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
Fierce fighting between the South Asian neighbours, who were close allies earlier, erupted last month with Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan that Islamabad said targeted militant strongholds.
Afghanistan called the strikes a violation of its sovereignty that targeted civilians and launched its own attacks.
Islamabad says Kabul provides a safe haven to militants launching attacks on Pakistan. The Taliban deny the allegation, saying tackling militancy is Pakistan's internal problem.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul, Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Additional reporting by Sayed Hassib in Kabul, Sakshi Dayal in New Delhi and Laurie Chen in Beijing; Writing by YP Rajesh; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
