Ministry of defence brings mutilated Afghan woman to Spain for surgery

The 24-year-old, who was married at age nine and had the first of her four children when she was 11, has been living off charitable aid from local humanitarian organisations since the attack six months ago.

She was taken to Madrid in a Spanish Armed Forces aircraft which had travelled to the city of Herat to relieve soldiers on duty.

Identified only by her initials of S.H., the woman underwent plastic surgery in Turkey where she stayed for 40 days, funded by private donors and charities in Herat.

But when she went to the military base hospital in Herat for follow-up treatment, doctors from Spain's Gómez Ulla hospital for soldiers who were on duty in Afghanistan examined her and said they could probably give her more effective surgery in Spain.

She will have to stay in Madrid for at least a month, and then return several more times for further treatment.

Her husband, a drug-user, is said to be a Taliban rebel who fled the area after mutilating his wife and will not be tried in court.