- Attack breached special protection of medical facilities
- No evidence of Pakistan’s claims site was a military target
- Lack of investigation and accountability risks ‘entrenching impunity’ in ongoing conflict
Four months after calling on Pakistan’s authorities to explain how and why they targeted a Kabul drug rehabilitation center on March 16, killing at least 269 civilians, Amnesty International has published a new investigation calling for the attack to be investigated as a possible war crime.
The organization found no evidence to support the Pakistan military’s claims that Omid Rehabilitation and Treatment Center was being used to store weapons and ammunition or for other military purposes at the time of the attack. The air strikes violated the special protection afforded to healthcare facilities under international humanitarian law (IHL), as well the principles of distinction, precaution and proportionality designed to protect civilians.
“The attack on the Omid Center constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law – possibly amounting to a war crime. Given the widely available information that the site had been used as a medical facility for more than a decade, this reflects a major failure in military planning by Pakistan that led to a significant loss of civilian life,” said Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s Acting Regional Director for South Asia.
“This was a lethal failure by Pakistan to comply with its obligation to do everything feasible to verify whether the target was a military objective. Pakistan must urgently conduct a transparent, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation into the attack – especially the decision-making process that led to the targeting of the facility – and make the results public.
“Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should prosecute any person suspected of criminal responsibility, including under the doctrine of command responsibility.”
The attack was one of a series of air strikes conducted by the Pakistan military inside Afghanistan since the escalation of cross-border hostilities with the Taliban in October 2025. Between January and March 2026 alone, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented more than 750 civilian casualties, 372 killed and 392 others injured in Afghanistan. The June 28 airstrikes in Paktya, Paktika and Kunar provinces killed at least 28 civilians according to UNAMA. While is no consolidated figure for civilian casualties in Pakistan, media reports indicate that at least seven civilians have been killed through mortar shelling originating from Afghanistan territories.
“All parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law and take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects, with particular care afforded to medical facilities and other specially protected sites. Failure to investigate serious violations, such as the attack on the Omid Center, shows an alarming disregard for international law and risks entrenching impunity, leading to further unlawful operations and loss of civilian life,” said Isabelle Lassee.
Amnesty International analyzed and verified more than 60 photos and videos, most of which were captured in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the Omid Center, including videos released by Pakistan’s military to support its claim that the site was being used as a storage facility for weapons and ammunition. The organization also reviewed more than 30 satellite images of the area, as well as verified videos documenting the operations at the Omid Center prior to the attack.
Eleven interviews were conducted, including with employees and former employees of the Omid Center and the adjacent Ibn-e-Sina Hospital. Interviewees also included individuals who visited the center immediately after the attack and victims’ family members. Some of the interviewees witnessed the strikes, and some were also involved in the evacuation effort.
On July 9, Amnesty International contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan to request details about what the government has done to investigate any failure in targeting, and whether those involved in the process were held to account, including any information to substantiate their claim that the target was a “weapon and ammunition store.” No response had been received at the time of publication.
Prohibition of attacks on medical facilities
The principle of distinction in IHL requires parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives. Deliberate attacks against healthcare facilities and on their personnel are specifically prohibited, unless a facility is being used outside its humanitarian function. When there is doubt as to whether medical facilities are being used to commit acts “harmful to the enemy” – the only case in which they could lose their protected status – they should be presumed not to be so used.
In a post on X the day after the strike, Attaulah Tarar, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting, claimed that the Pakistan military had targeted: “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” in two locations in Kabul (one of them being the Omid Center). He also claimed that secondary detonations indicated that large ammunition depots were hit in the strikes.
Videos and photographs of bomb remnants shared directly with Amnesty International were analyzed by the organization’s weapons experts, who concluded that at least one of the munitions used was a Takbir precision-guided bomb. This finding is consistent with statements by the Pakistani military that precision-guided munitions were used in the strike, suggesting that the attack was the result of a deliberate targeting decision.
The Omid Centre was established in 2016 on the site of a former NATO base. It had originally operated as a vocational training facility for people being treated for substance-dependence. After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the site was expanded into a 2,000-bed treatment center for people with drug-dependence problems. Ibn-e-Sina Hospital, which provided essential healthcare services to Omid Center patients, is also located on the site.
There is a wide range of publicly available information on the Omid Center’s work including a 2023 Al Jazeera documentary showing patients undergoing treatment at the center.
Amnesty International identified at least two large in-local-language signboards, located above the main gate and inside the camp, clearly indicating that the location was a rehabilitation and treatment center. The organization also verified a video recorded in 2025 and captured inside the center, showing some of the hangars where patients were housed, and analyzed satellite images of the Omid Center between April 2023 and March 15, 2026. On March 13, just three days prior to the attack, imagery shows large groups of people present.
“The Pakistani authorities should have known the facility was a civilian object and that any aerial attack could result in large-scale civilian casualties. Even if the Pakistani military had any reliable information of military use, it was clear that the civilian harm would be excessive,” said Isabelle Lassee.
No evidence of weapons or ammunition
The strikes occurred at around 9pm, just as the evening tarawih prayers for Ramadan were being concluded, according to people who spoke to the organization. On the night of the attack, according to several interviewees who worked in the center, more than a thousand patients were housed there.
Under IHL, attacking forces have an obligation to do everything feasible to verify whether their intended target is a military objective and, if there is doubt in this respect, to refrain from launching an attack or to cancel or suspend it. Even if a medical facility is being used for non-humanitarian purposes, an attack can only be justified after an effective warning has been issued and ignored. Amnesty International found no indication that any warning was issued, and the timing of the attack at evening prayers ensured civilian presence and left no opportunity for evacuation.
In his post on X, Attaulah Tarar included several videos that he said corroborated the Pakistani military’s claims that the site was being used to store weapons and ammunition.
Amnesty International open-source investigators and weapons experts analyzed these videos, as well as evidence directly received from local sources and online. The videos consist of black and white drone and fighter aircraft feeds that show the air strikes from various angles. None of these videos, nor footage gathered from ground sources, allow the identification of conclusive evidence of weapons, ammunition or other explosive goods stored in the area. The footage does not show secondary explosions immediately following the strikes, which would constitute evidence of a possible ammunition storage.
“Our investigation strongly indicates that this was not a legitimate military target under international humanitarian law. The ‘evidence’ Pakistan has made public so far does not rebut the conclusion that this was an unlawful attack causing harm to civilians and civilian objects,” said Isabelle Lassee.
Locations impacted by the strikes
Digital evidence and witness testimonies indicate that at least three locations within the site were heavily damaged or destroyed as a result of the air strikes.
Satellite imagery from March 13 shows the Omid Center three days before the strikes. The east and west sides of the complex are separated by a controlled gate. Many people are visible on the east side of the gate in the imagery, which according to testimony is the main living area for patients.
On March 23 satellite imagery shows three heavily damaged and burned areas. The video posted by Attaulah Tarar shows three of the impacted buildings being struck: the large building in the north-east and two buildings in the north-west. Satellite imagery also shows heavy burning and destruction in the south-west.
At one of these locations, the destruction included a large hangar situated in the north-east of the site. Several interviewees said that the site housed patients undergoing treatment, as well as the kitchen and dining hall. Videos and photos captured in the immediate aftermath of the attack and during the evacuation process indicate that the dead bodies were mostly recovered from this area.
A second location, in the north-west of the site, was used by Taliban security personnel and for food storage, according to several interviewees. The third location, in the south-west of the site, was, according to several sources, used for storing items such as coal, wood, and essentials such as clothing, and accommodated a tailoring center.
One interviewee who visited the Omid Center after the attack, said: “One of the buildings which was hit was used for storage of wood and coal. When I visited, I saw remnants of wood and coal. There were many clothes. There were many shoes. These were not military shoes.”
“Anywhere I stepped, there was a dead body”
Shortly after the attack, the Taliban said that more than 400 civilians had been killed and more than 250 others wounded. In May, UNAMA independently verified that at least 269 civilians were killed and 122 others wounded.
According to several interviewees, the actual number of deaths is likely higher due to the level of destruction causing some remains to be unidentifiable.
Amnesty International spoke with the relative of one victim whose family had been unable to locate their loved one after searching hospitals and drug rehabilitation centers where patients were transferred: “The situation is uncertain for the family. The hangar that housed newly admitted patients was hit. However, nothing of his body has been found. The family has reviewed all the photos collected by the Forensic Laboratory to identify him. He was not identified.”
A healthcare worker who was involved in the evacuation of the victims in the aftermath of the attack, said: “I rushed to help anywhere I heard noise and calls for help. After a while I was no longer hearing any voices…Anywhere I stepped, there was a dead body.”
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