The suicide bombing of a medical convoy on Sunday raised fears that the Taliban have begun targeting the United Nations in their campaign to oust Afghanistan’s US-backed government and foreign troops,

Despite many years working in Afghanistan, the UN has not been previously been directly targeted by the Taliban. But on Sunday, a clearly marked white UN vehicle carrying two Afghan doctors working on a World Health Organisation polio vaccination campaign was rammed by a suicide car bomber near Spin Boldak, a town close to the Pakistani border in Kandahar province.