Recovered from FSRN’s earlier site via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The audio here is FSRN’s own production recording. Originally published January 2, 2009.
In Afghanistan, Taliban militants killed 20 Afghan police serving as bodyguards for a district chief in the Southwestern Helmand province. It's one of the worst attacks in months, and comes as 2008 totals show a deadly year for US troops, Afghan police and civilians. Some 151 US troops died in NATO operations, an estimated 850 Afghan police were killed, and U.S. or NATO troops killed about 370 civilians, according to the Associated Press. As the violence continues throughout the country, Afghanistan's soaring drug addiction rate is increasing by the day, with children and women more frequently becoming drug users. Battling this epidemic is difficult because of the circumstances of war and lack of social services, but also because of cultural taboos placed on drug addicts, especially women. From Kabul, Asma Nemati reports.
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