Afghanistan says Pakistan is responsible for a strike on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul that killed at least 400 people, the deadliest attack since fighting began weeks ago.
Steve Inskip, Host:
Emergency crews worked for hours Tuesday to remove bodies from a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul. Pakistani airstrikes hit it. At least 400 people were killed in the strike, Afghan officials said. It is easy for Americans to escape given our own war and other distractions, but Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting across their borders. Betsy Jolls reports from Islamabad on the conflict that has killed civilians on both sides of that border.
BETSY JOLES, BYLINE: Families gathered at the scene of the attack to get any information they could. They say their relatives were receiving addiction treatment inside. Sahil(ph), who like many Afghans goes by the same name, was searching for his brother Mohammad Yehya(ph). They say they have been told to check with nearby hospitals.
Sahil: (Speaks a language other than English).
Joles: Then Sahil was directed to the mortuary, where women and children were standing outside. But his brother was not among the charred faces covered in white cloth. After the strike, Amir Khan Muttaki, the Taliban’s foreign minister, vowed to defend Afghanistan. Pakistan insists it will destroy the terrorist infrastructure of militant groups it claims is backed by the Afghan Taliban government, and it is doubling down on that claim. This is from Pakistan TV, the English news arm of Pakistan’s state broadcaster.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Now the Afghan Taliban regime is pushing a false narrative. It claimed that Pakistan had targeted the hospital. Let’s set the record straight.
JOLLES: In the past three weeks, Pakistan has gone straight after the Afghan Taliban, claiming to have killed hundreds of their fighters in air and ground attacks. Afrasiab Khattak, a former Pakistani senator and regional affairs analyst, says the fighting has already taken a significant human toll.
Afrasiab Khattak: Unfortunately, the general civilian population is at the receiving end.
Joles: Afghan forces have launched attacks on Pakistani border posts and sent drones into their neighboring region. In addition to the civilian deaths, the UN migration agency says tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes due to mortar and artillery shells along their shared border.
With Fazelminallah Khazizai in Kabul for NPR News, I’m Betsy Jolls in Islamabad.
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