Nine homeless drug users shot dead in Afghan capital

Gunmen shot dead nine homeless drug users in the Kabul, officials said on Sunday, shining a light on chronic drug abuse in Afghanistan, which is the world's biggest producer of opium. But the incident is also a rare case of apparently coordinated violence against addicts.

The motive for the Saturday night attack by the unidentified gunmen in Kabul was not known and police said they were investigating the incident. The men had been sleeping in an open area and a forensic examination had shown they were drug users.

"The shooting took place at the side of the Qargha mountain," a spokesman for Kabul police, Ferdaus Faramarz, told a news agency.

There are an estimated 2.5 million drug users in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Public Health says, with most thought to addicted to heroin made from opium poppies grown in Afghanistan.

Some 20,000 drug users are homeless, with half that number in Kabul, at times straining relations with residents of some communities.

Dhaka/Mukul