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‘This is the saddest moment’: families search for loved ones on Eid after Kabul hospital strike

The Guardian · · 920 words · By Saeed Shah

The article reports on a Pakistan airstrike in Kabul that hit a drug rehabilitation center, resulting in numerous casualties. It includes accounts from victims, aid workers, and officials detailing the attack's impact and aftermath, with conflicting casualty figures reported by different organizations.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/21/kabul-hospital-strike-eid-pakistan…

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0%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 100%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

30 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

schedule Pending 20
help Insufficient Evidence 6
verified Verified By Reference 3
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“Sohrab Faqiri spent Eid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for the grave of his brother, killed in a massive Pakistan airstrike on Kabul this week.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web sources independently report Sohrab Faqiri searching for his brother's grave during Eid following the airstrike. Two distinct articles from March 21 and 24, 2026, describe the same event.
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 21, 2026 ·A devastatingairstrikein KabulovershadowedEidcelebrations as a mansearchingfor hisbrotherdiscovered him in an unmarkedgrave. Hundreds were killed, leaving families in grief and chaos.
https://www.dazzlingdawn.com/2026/3/21/eid-marked-by-devasta…
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 24, 2026 ·SohrabFaqirispentEid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for thegraveofhisbrother, killed in a massivePakistanairstrikeonKabulthis week.Pakistan…
https://www.newswire.lk/2026/03/24/this-is-the-saddest-momen…
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 21, 2026 ·SohrabFaqirispentEid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for thegraveofhisbrother, killed in a massivePakistanairstrikeonKabulthis week.Pakistan…
https://thenyjournals.com/this-is-the-saddest-moment-familie…
verified
“Pakistan’s bombardment campaign, on what it says is terrorist and military infrastructure in neighbouring Afghanistan, appeared to have gone catastrophically wrong.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia confirms Pakistan's airstrike on Kabul's Omid Hospital caused civilian casualties, with conflicting casualty reports between UN and Taliban authorities.
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 18, 2026 ·UN revises Kabul rehab strike toll asPakistandeniestargetingcivilians Disputed toll and competing accounts of strike deepen crisis between Islamabad and Kabul.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/18/un-revises-kabul-re…
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web search NEUTRAL — On 16 March 2026, Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, [a] a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul,Afghanistan, was destroyed amidairstrikescarried out by thePakistanAir Force during the 2026Afghanistan–P…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Kabul_hospital_airstrike
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Mar 13, 2026 ·Pakistanbombed the fuel depot of private airline Kam Air nearAfghanistan's Kandahar airport, the ruling Taliban said on Friday, stepping up the neighbours' worst conflict in years, despi…
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pakistan-bombs-fu…
verified
“A rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was hit on Monday night, according to the United Nations and the Afghan authorities.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia explicitly states the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital was destroyed by a Pakistan airstrike, corroborated by multiple web sources describing the attack.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Foreign nationals and some vulnerable Afghan citizens were airlifted from Kabul by the United States and its allies in 2021. The airlift followed the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan in August …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Kabul_airlift
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 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…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Kabul_hospital_airstrike
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of terrorist attacks in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_attacks_in_K…
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
“The UN’s preliminary death toll is 143 people, while the Taliban administration puts the figure at more than 400 dead.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia mentions the UN revised casualty figures for the airstrike, indicating conflicting reports between UN (143) and Taliban (over 400).
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — War between Afghanistan and Pakistan began in late February 2026 following Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Nangarhar, Paktika, and Khost provinces. Pakistan said the strikes targeted militant ca…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Afghanistan–Pakistan_War
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 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…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Kabul_hospital_airstrike
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States declared the war on terror and subsequently led a multinational military operation against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The stated goal …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Afgh…
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“Faqiri’s brother, Qais, a tailor and father of a 10-year-old boy, was being treated for the last three months at the facility, called Omid or 'Hope'.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No sources provide information about Qais Faqiri's treatment at Omid Hospital or his medical history.
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“Faqiri rushed there after the airstrike, but could not find him among the survivors.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence confirms or denies Sohrab Faqiri's search of Kabul hospitals for his brother.
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“He spent the next two days visiting hospitals in Kabul, but there was no sign of Qais.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No sources document Sohrab Faqiri's hospital search efforts or timeline.
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“Then, by chance, he saw a video of a mass burial by the authorities of the airstrike victims and spotted his brother.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence confirms or refutes the identification of Qais in a burial video.
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“On Thursday – marked as Eid in Afghanistan – he went to the hillside graveyard on the edge of Kabul, where the burial took place.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No sources verify Sohrab Faqiri's visit to the hillside graveyard on Eid day.
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“There, he found rows of stones planted along lines of upturned earth. But there were no names to identify any of the bodies.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence confirms the existence of unmarked graves or burial site details.
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“The attack took place just as patients returned to their dormitories after gathering for Tarawih, the special prayers said at night during Ramadan, when worshippers ask for forgiveness of their sins.”
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“Wali Nazir Mohammad, 23, was tired after the prayers and went to his bed, in one of the smaller buildings which accommodated about 20 patients in a single room.”
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“When the explosion woke him, the room and some of his fellow patients were on fire. Many in the room were dead and others were screaming for help.”
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“His waist and leg were in severe pain. He said that the room had not been hit directly, but shrapnel came through the walls, slicing into him.”
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“Around half an hour later, an ambulance took him to Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, one of Kabul’s main medical facilities.”
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“He said one of the big buildings had taken a direct hit.”
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“Juma Khan Nael, from the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said many of the patients had finished their treatment and were due to be discharged the following day.”
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“He said the fire ignited by the bombing could be seen for miles.”
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“When Nael arrived at the site on the morning after the bombing, rescue workers were still digging through the debris. They were finding hands, feet and pieces of flesh, not whole bodies.”
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“Maisam Shafiey, from the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group, said when he got to the scene the next morning, smoke was still rising, while in another part of the site, some patients remained.”
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“Shafiey believed many of the victims had been together in one large structure. 'A big building was hit. There’s nothing there now. The roof had collapsed. Everything was rubble,' he said.”
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“Afghan authorities say 408 were killed and 265 injured. Islamabad, which maintains that it struck a military target, says that terrorists attacking Pakistan are being harboured by the Taliban.”
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“Georgette Gagnon, the deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, expected her organisation’s death toll to rise. She said 'several hundred' appeared to have been killed and injured.”
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“She said the drug treatment centre was within a facility run by the Afghan de facto administration. Before 2015, the location was a US military base.”
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“Dejan Panic, the country director of Emergency, an Italian NGO which runs a major hospital in Kabul, said he had heard two loud detonations; the airstrike took place about six miles away across the city.”
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“The hospital received 24 wounded and three dead bodies that night, with many having shell injuries – metal shrapnel entering their bodies.”
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“These days, such injuries were rare in Afghanistan, Panic said, compared with the war years before the 2021 Taliban takeover.”
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“One man had broken his thigh bone jumping out of a second-floor window to escape the fire. Another was in danger of bleeding to death with a severed femoral artery, which carries blood to the legs, but was brought to the hospital in time to be operated on.”
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“The less-injured patients told Panic they were happy about their treatment at the rehab facility. Drug addicts were a common sight in Kabul before the Taliban seized power, but have been taken off the streets. At the Omid centre, patients were being taught skills such as carpentry, tailoring and electrical work.”
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“‘The patients said that they were getting food, shelter and medical care, and that they were being taught skills to help them get back on their feet,’ said one official.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.