A deadly incident at a drug rehabilitation center in the Afghan capital has triggered sharply conflicting accounts from Taliban officials, Pakistani authorities and independent media, raising urgent questions about what exactly occurred and who was responsible.
Hamdullah Fitrat, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban, said
Pakistan had targeted the Omid rehabilitation center in Kabul, claiming that at
least 400 people were killed and another 250 injured in the strike. The
facility, he said, was a civilian medical center housing hundreds of patients
undergoing treatment.
A video released by Hurriyat, a Taliban-affiliated media
outlet, appeared to show a guard at the camp describing the incident. In the
footage, the man says a jet dropped a bomb roughly 200 meters away from the
site. He added that he was wounded by shrapnel from the explosion, suggesting
the blast occurred near, but not necessarily directly on, the facility.
Pakistan, however, has firmly denied striking any medical or
civilian site. In an official statement, it said its forces had “precisely
targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul
and Nangarhar Province, rejecting accusations of civilian casualties at a
treatment center.
Adding to the confusion, Afghanistan International, a media
outlet critical of the Taliban, reported that Taliban forces themselves may
have set parts of the hospital ablaze after the incident, allegedly to amplify
the scale of destruction and casualties.
The Omid center occupies a site with a complex history. It
was previously known as Camp Phoenix, a base used by NATO forces during the war
in Afghanistan, before being repurposed into a rehabilitation facility in
recent years. That history has fueled speculation over whether the site might still
hold strategic or symbolic significance.
Key questions remain unresolved. It is unclear whether the
entire facility was struck or only a portion of the surrounding area. There has
been no independent verification of casualty figures, which, if confirmed,
would make the incident one of the deadliest single events in Kabul in recent
years.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information has rejected claims
circulating on social media that Omid Hospital was struck in a recent
cross-border operation, calling the assertion “misleading and factually
incorrect.” In an official statement, the ministry clarified that the facility
identified in the viral post is located several kilometres away from Camp
Phoenix, which it described as a military-linked site used for storing ammunition
and equipment and the actual target of the strike.
The statement further emphasized clear structural
differences between the two locations, noting that Omid Hospital is a
multi-storey building, whereas the site hit in the operation consists of
low-rise infrastructure consistent with storage facilities.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
has not yet released an official assessment, leaving a critical gap in
independent verification. Human rights organizations have called for a
transparent investigation by neutral international bodies, warning that the
lack of clarity risks deepening mistrust and misinformation.
Further complicating efforts to establish the facts, the
Taliban have not allowed open access to potential military strike sites,
limiting journalists’ ability to independently verify claims on the ground.
Until credible, independent findings emerge, the events surrounding the Omid center remain contested — a stark illustration of how, in modern conflicts, the truth itself can become one of the first casualties.
Jill Andrious is an experienced analyst and commentator on South Asia and the Middle East. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Kabul Tribune.
