KABUL — Afghan officials sharply increased the tally of the dead in an attack last week on a military hospital, saying Wednesday that at least 50 people, including patients and staff, were killed.

In addition, 24 people have been arrested in connection with the March 8 attack in Kabul, including Afghan generals, according to Lieutenant General Helaludin Helal, the country’s deputy minister of defense for strategic and intelligence affairs. The arrests were for a variety of charges, including negligence, incompetence, and complicity, Helal said at a contentious news conference.

The news conference was called after Afghan reports and social media accounts suggested that the casualty toll was actually in the hundreds; that three hospitalized Afghan generals were among those killed by the attackers; and that the minister of defense, Abdullah Habibi, had personally signed the VIP vehicle pass that allowed the attackers to enter the heavily guarded hospital complex in a car packed with explosives and weapons.

The reports seemed to be fueled partly by contradictory government claims immediately after the attack that only two people had died, a number many officials stuck to even after personnel at the Ministry of Defense confirmed at least 31 people were dead.

Helal maintained that the news reports in general were distorted and incorrect, without getting into specifics. As the questioning grew heated, Helal abruptly left, leaving the defense ministry spokesman, Major General Dawlat Waziri, to take over.

Waziri confirmed that officials were investigating the possibility that the attack was carried out by insiders, but he did not directly address assertions that doctors working at the hospital were involved. He did not identify the generals who were arrested, how many generals were arrested, or what the charges were.

No names of the victims have been made public by the government, further fanning speculation about a higher death toll.

A retired general who is currently a member of Parliament, Nazifa Zaki, disputed the official figure. “I believe 200 people were martyred in the hospital. This is what I heard from eyewitnesses and those who went to the hospital and funerals of the martyred.’’

The Islamic State group claimed on one of its websites that it was responsible for the hospital attack, while the Taliban denied any role. Government officials, however, have blamed the Taliban, and Helal said “we cannot deny’’ that one of the attackers shouted, “Long live the Taliban.’’

New York Times