On 16 March 2026, Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, Afghanistan, was destroyed amid airstrikes carried out by the Pakistan Air Force during the 2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan War. Hospital officials working at the center said that about 3,000 people were treated there and estimated the casualties to be in hundreds, most of them patients. According to Afghan authorities, the attack killed at least 408 people and injured another 265. News reporters, international NGOs and emergency responders also confirmed that more than 100 people had been killed. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that the airstrike had killed at least 269 people and injured at least 122 others and that the actual number of casualties was likely higher.
The Afghan government claimed that the facility was directly targeted by an airstrike carried out by the Pakistan Air Force, a statement supported by UNAMA and the Human Rights Watch, who further declared it a possible war crime. Pakistani officials admitted to carrying out airstrikes in Kabul, but denied targeting the facility, stating that its air force struck military sites nearby. The airstrike was the deadliest strike on civilians in Afghanistan since 2021.
Background
In October 2025, following border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a ceasefire was signed after mediation by Qatar and Turkey. On 16 February 2026, a suicide bombing at a border security checkpoint in Bajaur District, Pakistan, killed a child and eleven Pakistani security personnel. On 26 February 2026, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab Lil Haq against 'the terrorists and their support infrastructure in Afghanistan'. On 13 March 2026, three days prior to the strike in Kabul, Pakistan intercepted "rudimentary drones" launched by the Afghan Taliban targeting Islamabad.
Airstrike At around 9 p.m. local time, an airstrike destroyed the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital (or the Support and Treatment Center, Omid). Large sections of the hospital, including five blocks of the rehabilitation compound, were left completely destroyed. The main 180-foot-long destroyed building included a prayer and meal hall and housed around 500 patients at the time of the strikes, its roof collapsing due to the strikes; adjacent buildings each containing 20 to 30 bunk beds also caught fire including a teenage ward housing approximately 40 to 50 young patients, none of whom survived with the United Nations describing it as the "complete destruction of one block that housed adolescents receiving drug treatment." Container housing units south of the main building, housing around 50 patients at the time, were also destroyed amid intense fires. Most of the victims were patients. Omid Stanikzai, a security guard at the drug treatment center, who witnessed fighter jets bombing the site said that the fighter jets dropped the bombs after being fired upon by Afghan forces. Another injured victim, also witnessed the plane first firing at the hospital and then circling back around to bomb it. Maiwand Hoshmand, a doctor who worked at the facility, said that patients had just finished dinner and some were at a Ramadan congregational prayer when jets hit three parts of the facility.
A spokesperson of the Afghan government said the death toll was suspected to be 408 people with 265 people injured. According to the Afghan health ministry's spokesman, Sharafat Zaman Amarkhail, there were no military facilities near the hospital.
The hospital was located in the Hootkhail area of Kabul's District 9, in the eastern part of the city. It was in the former U.S. military base Camp Qargha (formerly Camp Phoenix) which had been converted into a drug rehabilitation centre under the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs about a decade ago and was transferred to the Ministry of Interior Affairs after the Taliban takeover. It served people across Kabul.
Facilities inside the former military base have also reportedly been used by the Taliban to manufacture small combat drones. Though The New York Times said that post-strike imagery showed "no sign of weapons, ammunition or military equipment in the targeted building." Jacopo Caridi, Norwegian Refugee Council's Afghanistan head, said that he had seen no military facilities in the immediate area. The strike was declared unlawful and a possible war crime by the Human Rights Watch.
Pakistani information minister Attaullah Tarar claimed that no civilian facilities were targeted, saying the Pakistani strikes hit "military installations in Kabul" and further claimed that the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Camp Phoenix was located several kilometers from the original target site and that secondary explosions from stored ammunition explained the observed effects. Sky News, in its analysis of official Pakistani footage of the strikes, said that at least four buildings were hit with guided aerial bombs in targeted strikes by Pakistan on the facility in Kabul with extensive damage seen in an aftermath drone video. Trevor Ball, a conflict researcher with Bellingcat, geolocated the strikes to buildings of the rehab center. A photo from Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority also showed significant damage to the rehab center. Human Rights Watch said that its analysis of the official Pakistani video footage and of subsequent satellite images, actually confirmed the targeted destruction of the rehab centre including its main and adjacent buildings (the latter housing upto 450 patients) and nearby container units. It added that its analysis of post strike video footage showed "no indication of secondary detonations" by ammunitions or explosives saying that the facility did not have enough space to segregate and store bulk ammunitions.
A senior Pakistani military official, who spoke with the New York Times on the condition of anonymity, said that Pakistan was aware of the former military base being converted to a rehab center years ago but had military intelligence that the broader compound housed facilities for drone storage and suicide bombers. According to Amu TV, Baheer Center, the reported drone production site, is located north of the rehabilitation center and was not hit, nor were the Afghan Police recruitment center and military hangars beside it. It said that the Pakistani strikes had dropped at least 3 bombs all of which hit the rehabilitation compound, including the main building and container housing units south of it.
The hospital was originally built with 1,000 beds but was reportedly exceeding its capacity in 2023 amid Taliban's crackdown on the drug addiction crisis in Afghanistan, cramming up to 3,000 patients. The Afghan Times reported that hundreds of patients were undergoing treatment at the 2,000-bed hospital at the time of the airstrikes. Amu TV said that there were 800 to 850 people in the compound at the time of the strikes. The Afghanistan government said that 491 people were rescued, which Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said would bring (along with the 408 were killed and 265 injured) the total number of people present to 1,164.
AFP and the BBC reporters counted at least 30 dead bodies while medical teams worked at ground zero at around 10 p.m. local time. The New York Times said that a reporter counted at least 80 bodies among the rubble and in body bags. A fleet of ambulances were also witnessed. A radiology department worker stated that very few of the patients living in containers on campus could survive the strike and everyone died where the bombs were dropped. A patient later recounted that everyone was inside the wards when the explosion happened. According to Amu TV around 200 people were killed in the strikes.
Officials at the destroyed hospital said that more than 50 bodies were still believed to be trapped under the debris amid rescue operations the next day with thousands from the families of victims searching for them. Many of the wounded were treated at Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital. Najibullah Farooqi, the head of Wazir Akbar Khan's Forensic Medicine Department, said that the department had received 98 bodies most of which had been identified. Other victims, including 3 dead and 27 wounded, were taken to the Kabul Emergency Hospital which is run by the Italian medical NGO Emergency. Morgues across Kabul were overwhelmed with bodies of the victims. The department later told the BBC that it had received the bodies of more than 100 people who had been killed in the strikes with some bodies injured beyond recognition. Afghanistan's poor forensic infrastructure further rendered body identification of the dead difficult.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) stated that its staff had seen large numbers of casualties when they visited the hospital next morning and found hundreds of civilians dead and injured. NRC's Caridi said that the "numbers are in the hundreds".
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated that the airstrike was carried out by the Pakistan Air Force, and confirmed the killing and wounding of at least 269 and 122 respectively noting that the actual number of casualties was likely higher.
Aftermath Mohammad Nabi Omari, Afghan deputy interior minister, urged families of the victims to bury the dead in a single cemetery as a symbolic gesture. Many of the dead, including unidentified victims, were later mass buried at the Badam Bagh Hill Cemetery in Sarai Shamali, Kabul.
The Afghan government announced a compensation of for the families of the victims.
On 18 March, Pakistan announced a 5-day pause in hostilities on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr saying it had been requested to do so by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. Afghanistan also followed with a temporary pause of its military operations. The New York Times said that Pakistan's pause came amid growing pressure from international agencies and foreign governments against Pakistan for strikes at the rehab center.
The destruction of Kabul's main drug rehab centre left many former patients and other drug addicts without access to healthcare facilities, leading to calls for the construction of a new centre.
Reactions Afghanistan Zabihullah Mujahid, deputy information minister of Afghanistan, stated that the Afghan government considers "such an act to be against all accepted principles, and a crime against humanity." Suhail Shaheen, head of the Political Office of Afghanistan, too called it a crime against humanity and stated that Pakistan would get a "response in their language." Naseer Faiq, Afghanistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, said that targeting hospitals and civilians was a clear violation of international law and may constitute a war crime. He added that "UNAMA must conduct an impartial investigation and publish the results transparently." Ziaul Haq Amrkhil, an adviser to the president in the former Afghan government, added to the call for a UNAMA investigation. Abdul Salam Zaeef, former Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, said that the attack was exactly like the 'actions of the Israeli regime in Gaza' and must be condemned internationally.