KABUL: Eight members of polio vaccination teams working to eradicate the crippling virus in Afghanistan were killed on Thursday in four separate attacks, the United Nations said.

Polio teams were frequently targeted by insurgent groups in Afghanistan until the Taliban’s takeover of the country last year, when the hardline Islamist group said it wanted to work with the UN to stamp out the disease.

In the past polio campaigns in Afghanistan — and neighbouring Pakistan — were accused of being fronts for spying, while some clerics said the vaccine was a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.