Killed as they administered medicine

The Taliban murdered five women polio health workers in a series of attacks in Pakistan today. The victims were shot in the head at close range, two of them as they administered vaccine drops to young children. The killings halted a polio campaign that international health officials say is vital to contain the crippling disease but which the Taliban claim is a cover for US spies. The government is in the middle of a three-day vaccination drive targeting high risk areas of the country as part of an effort to immunise millions of children under the age of five. Four of the women were gunned down in the southern city of Karachi, and the fifth in a village outside the north-west city of Peshawar. Yesterday a man working on the anti-polio campaign was shot dead down in Karachi. The Taliban also killed three soldiers in an ambush of an army convoy escorting a vaccination team in the north-west. The attacks in Karachi were coordinated and occurred within 15 minutes in three different areas of the city that are far apart. In each case, the gunmen used 9mm pistols. Two of the women were 18 and 19, and the other two were in their 40s, he said. Two of the women were killed while they were in...