Roadside bomb kills 3 polio vaccinators in Afghanistan

A roadside bomb planted by militants struck a vehicle, killing three polio vaccinators in Afghanistan Tuesday, an official said.

"The vaccinators were going to a village in Sangin district (in Helmand province) at midday today to give polio drops to children when their car ran over a mine. As a result, all three were killed," Omar Zawak, spokesman of the Helmand provincial government, told Xinhua.

He did not blame anyone for the attack. Helmand is a former Taliban stronghold and Sangin district has been regarded as a Taliban hotbed in the province.

The anti-government armed militants killed two workers of anti-polio campaign in the neighbouring Uruzgan province in November last year.

 

Two cases of polio have been reported from Afghanistan this year, and the government has been fighting to get rid of the disease.