BEHROUZ MEHRI

IPA The Lucie Awards - Honorable Mention - Category: Professional, Photo Essay and Feature

PAKISTAN, Karachi : Pakistani heroin addicts Sayed Muhammed (L)40, and Maqsood (R), 33, inject heroin in the middle of a street in "Kala Pull", (Black Bridge) district of Karachi on July 25, 2011. Pakistan has more than four million drug addicts in its population of 170 million, according to figures compiled by the country's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF). Pakistan’s Central Secretary General of Council of Herbal Physicians Hakeem Qazi M.A.Khalid said that around 50 billion Pakistan Rupees were wasted in drug addiction every year in the country and 130,000 people took intoxicants through injections while 80 percent of addicts are using the same syringes which could lead to the contraction of fatal diseases. Much of the heroin is smuggled from neighbouring Afghanistan through Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI

Honorable Mention - Category: Professional, War/Conflict

AFGHANISTAN, HELMAND : A severely wounded US Marine hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is carried by his comrades to a medevac helicopter of U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-171 Aviation Regiment to be airlifted in Helmand province on October 31, 2011. The Marine who hit by an IED lost both his legs and fights for his life. All foreign combat troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and will require the Afghan army and police to play an ever-greater role in fighting the Taliban insurgency. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI