The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that 143 people were killed in an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul. This figure is significantly lower than the one provided by Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which claimed more than 400 deaths and about 265 wounded.

The attack on Kabul’s Omar Addiction Treatment Hospital on Monday night has intensified a bitter dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Taliban administration deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat stated that the strike hit the 2,000-bed facility, destroying large sections of the building and triggering fires that rescue teams worked through the night to contain.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistan of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and called the assault a “crime against humanity”. He emphasized that those killed and wounded were patients undergoing addiction treatment at the time of the strike.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar denied the allegations in an interview with Al Jazeera. He insisted that his country “only targeted terrorist infrastructure and military locations”.

The strike is the latest in a widening confrontation between the two neighbours, who have engaged in repeated cross-border clashes. Pakistan has also carried out air raids inside Afghanistan. At the heart of the dispute is a long-running Pakistani accusation that the Taliban government shelters the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, as well as outlawed Baloch separatist groups responsible for attacks on Pakistani soil.

Kabul has consistently denied providing sanctuary to these groups. The World Food Programme said on Sunday that it had begun mobilizing emergency food supplies for more than 20,000 Afghan families displaced by the fighting, a figure that is likely to grow as the conflict shows no sign of abating.

Source: www.aljazeera.com