KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Rescue crews were still digging bodies out of the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital on Tuesday morning, after officials there said that an overnight Pakistani airstrike killed at least 400 people in a dramatic escalation of a conflict between the two neighbors that is now in its third week.
Pakistan has denied Afghanistan’s accusation that it targeted a hospital, insisting that its strikes, which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, were aimed at military facilities. It dismissed Afghanistan's claims of hundreds of casualties from a strike on a hospital as being propaganda.
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A body lies entangled in the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital after it was hit by a late-Monday airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and rescue workers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and volunteers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
A little girl and a woman watch as rescue workers and officials inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and rescue workers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Firefighters work at the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and volunteers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
The casualties were taken to several hospitals in the area. It wasn't immediately possible to independently confirm the death toll.
The conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan began in late February, and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have gone unheeded. The strike came hours after Afghan officials said that the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing safe haven for militants who frequently carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially to the Pakistani Taliban, a group separate but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban who took over Afghanistan in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. The group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. Kabul denies the charge.
In a late-night post on X, Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the airstrike had hit the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility in Kabul, at about 9 p.m. local time.
He said that large sections of the facility had been destroyed, and that the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported wounded. There was no updated official death toll early Tuesday morning.
Local television stations posted footage on X showing security forces using flashlights as they carried out casualties while firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
The Omid hospital was renamed and expanded in size roughly a year ago from the Ibn Sina Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital. The site is located near a former NATO military base, Camp Phoenix, where U.S. forces used to train the Afghan National Army. After the Taliban seized control of the country in 2021, the base was taken over by Afghanistan’s new authorities. It wasn't immediately clear what was now housed on the site of the former base.
Pakistan's Information Ministry said in an X post that the Pakistani military had “precisely targeted" the Camp Phoenix site, which it said was now a “military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage site.” It said in its post that Omid hospital was “multiple kilometers” away from the former camp and accused Afghan officials of lying.
“Another important question also lingers, as to why would an alleged drug rehabilitation facility be colocated with lethal ammunition storage site in a military camp? This also remains unanswered,” the Information Ministry wrote.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” He said those killed were “innocent civilians and addicts.”
“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he said in a separate post on X.
A member of the rescue team working at the site on Tuesday morning, Allah Mohammad Farooq, said that hundreds had been killed.
“When we arrived here, everyone was buried under the rubble,” he said. "We then used a crane to pull them out. Most of the people were dead, and many are still trapped under the debris. “
A man sitting outside the site broke down in tears as he recounted hearing about the bombing. Haji Najibullah said that his son and other relatives were being treated in the hospital.
“We have no information about who is alive and who is buried under the rubble,” he said. “Only God knows who may have survived and who may be injured. So far, we have no news at all.”
The U.N. human rights expert in Afghanistan, Richard Bennet, said in an X post that he was “dismayed by fresh reports of #Pakistan airstrikes in #Afghanistan and resulting civilian casualties.” Offering his condolences, he added: “I urge parties to de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint & respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals.”
Shortly after Afghanistan accused Pakistan of targeting the hospital Monday night, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesperson, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X in the early hours of Tuesday that the Pakistani military had “carried out precision airstrikes” targeting military installations in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar. He said that “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” at two locations in Kabul were destroyed.
“All targeting has been done with precision only at those infrastructures which are being used by Afghan Taliban regime to support its multiple terror proxies,” he wrote.
The fighting — the most severe between the two neighbors — began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October, after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistan has declared that it's in “open war” with Afghanistan. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
On Saturday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said that Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that wounded several civilians in Pakistan last week.
Munir Ahmed reported from Islamabad, and Elena Becatoros from Athens, Greece.
A body lies entangled in the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital after it was hit by a late-Monday airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and rescue workers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and volunteers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
A little girl and a woman watch as rescue workers and officials inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and rescue workers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Firefighters work at the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Residents and volunteers inspect the site of a late-Monday airstrike at a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli defense minister said Tuesday that the Israeli military killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in an overnight strike.
Israel Katz made the announcement.
The Israeli military also announced it killed Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.
The killings again strip away top leaders from the Iranian theocracy after the Feb. 28 strike that killed 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel said Tuesday it had killed the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ all-volunteer Basij militia, a key force used to suppress demonstrations in the Islamic Republic, as Gulf Arab nations came under renewed missile and drone fire from Iran.
Dubai, a major transit hub for international travel, briefly shut its airspace as the military said it was “responding to incoming missile and drone threats” around the city, and a man was killed by the debris of a missile intercepted over Abu Dhabi.
The Israeli military also said early Tuesday it had begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran’s capital and was stepping up strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Israel also reported two incoming salvos before dawn from Iran at Tel Aviv and elsewhere, and said Hezbollah targeted Israel’s north.
The Israeli military said a strike Monday killed Basij head Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani but Iran did not immediately acknowledge the militia leader's death.
“The Basij forces are part of the armed apparatus of the Iranian terror regime,” the Israeli military said in its statement. “During internal protests in Iran, particularly in recent periods as demonstrations intensified, Basij forces under Soleimani’s command led the main repression operations, employing severe violence, widespread arrests and the use of force against civilian demonstrators.”
The U.S. Treasury lists Soleimani as having been born in 1965. He has been sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union and other nations over his role in helping suppress dissent for years through the Basij.
Since the war began Feb. 28, Israel has launched specific attacks targeting Iran’s leadership, killing 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other military commanders.
Killing Soleimani would likely further strain the command and control of the Basij, which would be crucial in putting down any uprising against the theocracy. The Basij and other internal security forces have been a target of attack by both the Americans and the Israelis so far.
Iran kept up the pressure on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, hitting an oil facility in Fujairah, a UAE emirate on the country’s east coast with the Gulf of Oman that has been repeatedly targeted. State-run WAM news reported that no one had been injured in the blast from the drone strike.
The man killed by falling debris from an intercepted missile was the eighth person to die in the UAE since the start of the war, authorities said.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, has given rise to increasing concerns of a global energy crisis. Early Tuesday it hit a tanker anchored off the coast of Fujairah, one of about 20 vessels hit since Israel and the United States started the war with an attack on Iran on Feb. 28.
Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said his country had been given no choice but to keep up its pressure on shipping traffic in the strait.
“They are flying, launching missiles, should we just sit back and do nothing in response?" he said in an interview on state television.
With Washington under increasing pressure over rising oil prices, Brent crude, the international standard, remained over $100 a barrel, up more than 40% since the war started.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had demanded that roughly a half-dozen countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. But his appeals brought no immediate commitments, with many saying they are hesitant to get involved in a war with no defined exit plan and skeptical that they could do more than the U.S. Navy.
The UAE shut down its airspace early Tuesday as its military reported it was “responding to missile and drone threats from Iran." The closure was soon lifted, and not long after the sounds of explosions could be heard as the military worked to intercept incoming fire.
The snap announcement on its airspace showed the balancing act Emirati authorities face in trying to keep their long-haul carriers, Emirates and Etihad, flying as Iranian attacks continue to target the country.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry reported intercepting a dozen drones Tuesday morning over the country’s vast Eastern Province, home to oil infrastructure.
In Qatar, the sounds of explosions boomed over the capital early in the day as defenses worked to intercept incoming fire. Qatar's Defense Ministry said later that it had successfully thwarted a missile attack on the city, though a fire broke out in an industrial area from a downed projectile.
Attacks from Iran-linked proxy forces continued in Iraq, as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was hit with shrapnel from drones that had been intercepted.
The embassy's air defenses were able to shoot down all four drones targeting the facility, according to two Iraqi security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
A separate strike targeted a house in the heavily fortified Presidential Compound in Baghdad’s al-Jadriya area, the officials said. It wasn’t clear who carried out either attack but Iran-allied militias have regularly been attacking American targets inside Iraq since the conflict began.
The Israeli military early Tuesday said it had launched new attacks across Tehran in addition to the Lebanese capital targeting Hezbollah militants.
In Iran, it said it hit command centers, missile launch sites and air defense systems. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran, where little information has been coming out due to internet outages, round-the-clock airstrikes and tight restrictions on journalists.
Israel did not immediately release details of its attacks on Lebanon, but the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers were seriously wounded in an airstrike on the village of Kfar Sir.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the conflict, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
Israel’s strikes have also displaced more than 1 million Lebanese — or roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says some 850 people have been killed.
Some Israeli troops have pushed into southern Lebanon, and there are fears Israel is preparing a large-scale invasion.
The military's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said Monday on a visit to the northern border that Israel's army is “determined to deepen the operation until all of our objectives are achieved” and that the military's Northern Command is being reinforced with additional soldiers.
Israel reported two Iranian salvos early Tuesday fired toward Tel Aviv and an area south of the Sea of Galilee. More launches from Lebanon were also reported.
In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
The virtual shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz is unnerving the world economy, driving up energy prices, threatening food shortages in poor countries, destabilizing fragile states and complicating efforts by central banks to drive down prices for consumers.
There have been a handful of ships getting through, primarily Iranian but also from other countries including India and Turkey, and Iran has said it technically remains open — just not for the United States, Israel and its allies. Iraq said Tuesday it was in talks with Iran about allowing passage for its ships.
Underscoring the danger of even getting close to the strait, a tanker anchored off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates was hit by a projectile early Tuesday morning and sustained minor damage, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami, Florida; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
FILE - Commander of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, gives a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
A view of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Two men ride their motorbike past a billboard of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
U.S. Embassy is seen across the Tigris River in Baghdad, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Fire and plumes of smoke rises after a drone struck a fuel tank forcing the temporary suspension of flights. near Dubai International Airport, in United Arab Emirates, early Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
