Kabul, Dhu-AlHijjah 22, 1438, Sep 13, 2017, SPA -- Increasing insecurity has forced 164 health facilities to shut their doors across Afghanistan since beginning of the year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed in a new report, as dpa reported. "Twenty-four other health facilities have been attacked and damaged either deliberately or as collateral damage," WHO said in its newsletter published on Wednesday. According to the newsletter, the forced closure of the health facilities is currently affecting around 3 million people's access to healthcare in Afghanistan. The attacks on health-care facilities are on the rise in country, the newsletter said, adding that, before 2015, most of the attacks occurred in so-called traditional conflict areas such as Kandahar province in the south and Nangarhar in the east. According to Dr David Lai, Health Cluster Coordinator at WHO Afghanistan, in the past two years attacks on health facilities and health-care workers have become more common throughout the country. --SPA 16:51 LOCAL TIME 13:51 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w486782