A Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul killed at least 408 people and wounded 265 on the night of Monday, March 16, 2026, Afghan officials said, making it the deadliest single event since cross-border hostilities between the two nations intensified in February.
The strike devastated large sections of the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility near Kabul’s international airport, around 9 p.m., igniting massive fires that trapped patients and staff as those who had just broken their Ramadan fast fled. Pakistan denied hitting civilian targets, saying its precision strikes were aimed at military sites and terrorist infrastructure.
Ahmad, a 50-year-old patient at the center, watched in horror as flames consumed the 25 people in his dormitory. He was the only survivor.
“The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday,” Ahmad told Reuters.
Health officials say about 3,000 patients from across Afghanistan were receiving treatment at the hospital when the strikes occurred. The center is a crucial resource in a country where millions struggle with drug addiction after years of conflict, economic collapse, and Afghanistan’s long-standing role as a major opium producer.
Anti-aircraft guns fired at 9 p.m. as jets hovered overhead, with the barrage continuing for about an hour until emergency crews could access the wrecked compound. Responders found charred walls, collapsed structures, and bodies trapped beneath debris.
Omid Stanikzai, a 31-year-old security guard at the hospital, described the chaos as military units around the facility fired at the incoming aircraft. He said the bombing followed clashes between Taliban forces and the jets, producing a fast-spreading fire across the compound.
The Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qanie reported 408 killed and 265 injured in the strike. Emergency, an Italian NGO working in Afghanistan, received three bodies and treated 27 people hurt in the attack.
Ambulance driver Haji Fahim moved at least eight bodies to a nearby hospital over five hours. By Tuesday morning, rescue teams were still pulling victims from the rubble.
Families gathered outside the destroyed facility searching for relatives. Baryalai Amiri, a 38-year-old mechanic whose brother had been admitted 25 days earlier, said officials gave little information about survivors or casualties.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned what he described as Pakistan’s violation of Afghan territory, calling the strike a crime against humanity. He said the attack targeted innocent civilians and addicts, breaching international law.
Pakistan’s information ministry firmly denied the accusations. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military carried out precision strikes solely against infrastructure used by the Taliban regime to support what Islamabad labels terror proxies, calling Afghan claims “entirely baseless.”
The assaults were part of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, launched by Pakistan in late February after reporting what it described as unprovoked attacks by Afghan Taliban fighters. Pakistan also said it struck targets on Monday in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan.
Cross-border skirmishes between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated in October, eased briefly following a Qatar-mediated ceasefire, and resumed on February 26. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said on March 13 that at least 75 civilians had died since then, and Monday’s hospital strike sharply increased that toll. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights separately reported that 289 Afghan civilians, including 104 children, had been killed or injured since the conflict began.
An estimated 115,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. The World Food Programme said Sunday it would deliver food to more than 20,000 displaced Afghan families, warning that ongoing instability could push millions toward hunger.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said prospects for de-escalation appeared slim. China’s special envoy spent a week mediating between the parties, urging an immediate ceasefire, while Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar — which helped broker the October truce — continued to press for a new halt in hostilities.
The Taliban banned all narcotics in April 2022, including opium poppy cultivation, resulting in an estimated 95 percent drop in opium output by 2023, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Thousands struggling with addiction have been placed in the country’s underfunded, overcrowded treatment centers.
As rescue operations continued Tuesday, teams discovered more bodies beneath collapsed buildings. Personal belongings—pillows, shoes, clothing—lay scattered in the debris. In some dormitories, bunk beds were against walls while ceilings had been blown off, leaving rooms exposed to the open sky.
On Wednesday, March 18, both Pakistan and Afghanistan announced a temporary pause in fighting at the request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Pakistan’s Information Minister Tarar said the pause would begin at midnight Wednesday local time and run through midnight Monday, warning operations would resume immediately if Pakistan experienced any cross-border attack or terrorist incident. Afghan spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a matching statement shortly afterward.
