Attacks target polio teams in east Afghanistan, 4 killed

Jalalabad - Daesh targets vaccination centres and health workers, as they claim anti-polio drives are part of an alleged Western conspiracy to sterilise children or collect intelligence.

Gunmen on Tuesday targeted members of polio teams in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least four staffers, officials said.

No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in the city of Jalalabad. Along with the four killed, at least three members of the polio vaccination teams were wounded, said Dr Jan Mohammad, who coordinates the anti-polio drive for the country's east.

Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan are the only two remaining countries in the world where polio is endemic, after Nigeria was last year declared free of the virus.

In March, Daesh said it shot and killed three women who were part of a polio vaccination team, also in Jalalabad, the capital of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

The group has also taken responsibility for several targeted killings that have taken aim at the country's nascent civil society, as well as journalists and legal professionals.

The Afghan government in recent months, with the help of UNICEF, has sought to inoculate 9.6 million children against polio. In 2020, Afghanistan reported 54 new cases of polio.