Kabul (AFP) - Crowds gathered on Tuesday outside a drug treatment centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in a bid for news of their loved ones after it was hit in a Pakistani air strike.

AFP reporters counted at least 30 bodies being removed from the rubble of the facility and saw medics treating dozens of wounded in the chaotic and smouldering aftermath of the attack on Monday night.

The Taliban authorities said the death toll could be in the hundreds.

At first light, chairs, blankets, pieces of hospital beds and human remains could be seen in the blackened ruins of the building.

Baryalai Amiri, a 38-year-old mechanic, came to the site where his brother was admitted about 25 days ago.

“We are not given the proper information,” he told AFP, as rescuers picked through the rubble nearby. “So far, we don’t know where he is.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing its neighbour of harbouring Islamist extremists who have mounted deadly cross-border attacks.

The Taliban government denies the charge.

Pakistan, however, denied Afghan claims that its latest attack on Kabul targeted civilians, instead insisting that it carried out precision strikes on “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.

The Afghan health ministry initially estimated that more than 200 people could have been killed, with as many wounded.

A Taliban government spokesman later said the death toll was at least double that, with 250 wounded.

- Targeted -

The health authorities said there were around 3,000 patients from across Afghanistan at the clinic at the time of the strikes, which triggered panic in Kabul, just after residents had broken their daily Ramadan fast.

People ran for cover as anti-aircraft guns fired from 9:00 pm (1630 GMT).

“I heard the sound of the jet patrolling,” Omid Stanikzai, 31, a security guard at the drug treatment centre, told AFP.

“There were military units all around us. When these military units fired on the jet, the jet dropped bombs and a fire broke out.”

All of the dead and injured were civilians, he added.

The Italian NGO Emergency said it received three bodies at its hospital in Kabul and was treating 27 wounded but expected the toll to be higher.

Doctors were called as back-up at several hospitals in the city.

Pakistan said it also hit the eastern border province of Nangarhar on Monday.

“Pakistan’s targeting is precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted,” the information ministry said.

– ‘De-escalate’ –

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said he was “dismayed” by reports of the air strikes and civilian casualties.

“I urge parties to de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint & respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals,” he posted on X.

On Friday, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed the deaths of at least 75 civilians in the country since clashes with Pakistan intensified on February 26.

China said on Monday that its special envoy has spent a week mediating between the two sides and urged an immediate ceasefire.

But South Asia expert Michael Kugelman, from the Atlantic Council international affairs think-tank, told AFP the fighting showed little sign of ending soon.

“The Arab Gulf nations that mediated previous rounds of Afghanistan-Pakistan talks are now bogged down by their own war. Other mediators, including China, have had limited success,” he said.

“Pakistan appears intent to keep hitting targets in Afghanistan, and the Taliban determined to retaliate with operations on Pakistani border posts and potentially with asymmetric tactics – from launching drones to sponsoring militant attacks in wider Pakistan.

“There are no off-ramps in sight.”