Amnesty: Deadly Pakistan Air Strikes on Kabul Drug Rehab Center a Possible War… — The Diplomat

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, as well as 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…