A reported airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan that reportedly killed hundreds is drawing increasing attention not only about the attack itself, but also about what critics describe as a muted international response.
Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government said more than 400 people were killed and hundreds injured after an attack hit Omid Hospital, a major drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to Reuters. Civilians, including children, have also been killed in escalating cross-border attacks in Pakistan, The Associated Press reported.
The casualty figures have not been independently verified.
The attack comes amid a rapidly escalating military campaign between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has intensified over the past three weeks.
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The site of a drug rehabilitation hospital destroyed in what the Taliban say was a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 17, 2026. (Said Hassib/Reuters)
Cross-border airstrikes and skirmishes have spread across multiple provinces, with Pakistan targeting what it claims are the bases of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group responsible for attacks in Pakistan and designated a terrorist organization by the US. The Taliban government has accused Islamabad of violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
At a UN briefing on Wednesday, a UN spokesman said the conflict had now entered its third week, with widespread civilian consequences. According to UN humanitarian agencies, more than 115,000 people have been displaced, more than 300 shelters have been damaged or destroyed and at least 25 health facilities have been closed or disrupted as a result of the fighting.
Pakistan has denied it was a hospital and said the operation hit militant infrastructure.
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Red Crescent volunteers carry the body of a victim who died during what the Taliban say was a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 17, 2026. (Said Hassib/Reuters)
Zaidi said the attack targeted weapons and ammunition at Camp Phoenix in Kabulm, Afghanistan, stressing: “There are no civilian hospitals at Camp Phoenix,” adding that reports of a hit rehabilitation center may be due to “secondary explosions” of stored weapons.
The United Nations on Wednesday, two days after the attack, condemned the reported attack, with Secretary-General António Guterres, through a spokesman, “strongly condemning” an airstrike that “reportedly resulted in the death (and) injuries of civilians in a hospital,” and calling for an independent investigation.
Still, some analysts say the response does not reflect the scale of the incident.
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Afghan Taliban fighters patrol near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, following gun battles between Pakistani and Afghan forces. (Reuters/Stringer/File Photo)
“This subdued response – no personal outrage from Guterres, no emergency session mentioning Pakistan by name, and no equal chorus of UN rapporteurs or agencies like WHO, UN Women and UNICEF – shows sheer hypocrisy,” he said. “When hundreds of vulnerable Afghans die in a hospital, the UN speaks measured words. But when the US or Israel can be blamed – rightly or not – the condemnation is immediate and overwhelming. When some victims matter far more than others, the UN reveals its cynical political agenda. This double standard does not uphold human rights, but erodes them.”
Australian human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky echoed that criticism in a post on Zero. Could hardly collect p17 in the newspaper here.’
