Taliban shut dozens of health clinics

The Taliban have shut down dozens of health facilities run by a Swedish aid group in a move affecting thousands of people, especially women and children, the agency said yesterday.

Doctors and hospitals have been frequently targeted by both sides during the country's decades-long conflict, and this latest loss follows a raid by Afghan security forces on a clinic last week that left four people dead.

The closures have hit Wardak province west of Kabul, where the Taliban have shuttered 42 of the 77 health facilities being run by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, the aid group said in a statement.

"Due to this closure, an estimated number of over 5,700 patients are affected on a daily basis," it said.

Denying people medical treatment and health services in this way "is an obvious violation of human rights and international humanitarian law", SCA's country director Sonny Mansson said.

"We demand immediate reopening of all health facilities for the people and we strongly urge all parties involved in conflict to refrain from such actions which deliberately put civilian lives at risk."

The Taliban have not issued any statement, but the militants have previously closed down health clinics and banned polio vaccination campaigns in areas under their control.