Afghan commandos killed four at medical clinic: HRW

Afghan commandos must be prosecuted after they "executed" four civilians during a night raid on a medical clinic in central Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

Doctors and hospitals have been frequently targeted during the country's decades-long conflict, with 2019 already proving far deadlier than last year for aid workers.

Several witnesses told the US-based non-governmental organisation that Afghan special operations forces entered the clinic, the only one operating in Wardak province west of Kabul, on the night of July 8-9.

"They killed a family caregiver and then detained and bound staff and family members accompanying patients," HRW said in a statement.

Three other people -- a lab worker, a guard and another person caring for a patient -- were later found dead from gunshots. HRW said they had been "executed".

"Attacks on medical facilities challenge the very foundations of the laws of war, and will persist if those responsible go unpunished," HRW's associate Asia director Patricia Gossman said.

"It's imperative for the Afghan government to prosecute the commanders who ordered the killings as well as the soldiers who pulled the trigger."