2 April 2011
Last updated at 02:50 ET
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The BBC’s Paul Wood: “It shows how this issue really inflames passions”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned an attack on a UN building in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i Sharif as “outrageous and cowardly”.
At least 14 people – including seven foreigners – were killed on Friday after protesters angered by the burning of a Koran in the US torched a UN building.
Reports from Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, say about 1,000 people have joined a demonstration over the same issue on Saturday.
Gunfire has been heard in the city.
Fifteen people have been injured in the demonstration in Kandahar, hospital officials told the BBC. A BBC correspondent there says the city is under lockdown.
Separately, at least two insurgents attacked a Nato base in the Afghan capital, Kabul, but they were killed before they could enter the compound, Nato and Afghan police said.
At least one was wearing a burqa, news agencies reported on Saturday, quoting police sources.
Overpowered by mob
Analysis
Paul Wood
BBC News, Kabul
The investigation now begins into the circumstances surrounding the worst attack on the United Nations in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.
Some have blamed Taliban infiltrators in the crowd which attacked the UN headquarters in Mazar-i Sharif. It is certainly true that armed men were seen in the crowd, but that may have been because the protesters managed to disarm the UN’s own guards.
The killings – including, perhaps, two beheadings – underline the international community’s sometimes precarious position in Afghanistan.
They also raise questions about the timetable to Afghan security control. Mazar-i Sharif is due to be one of the first places transferred from Nato security control in the summer, but on this occasion the Afghan police were unable to protect the UN.
Local police told the BBC that 27 people had been arrested following the demonstration in Mazar-i Sharif.
They were angered by the actions of US Pastor Wayne Sapp, who set light to a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida on 20 March.
The burning took place under the supervision of Pastor Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Pastor Jones has denied responsibility for the lethal protests in Afghanistan.
Witnesses said the protest began peacefully but suddenly turned violent.
Several demonstrators were killed by guards, who were then overpowered by the mob.
A state of emergency has now been declared in the city, Afghan intelligence sources told the BBC. All roads in and out of Mazar have been blocked and cars are being checked, says the BBC’s Bilal Sarwary.
Dan McNorton, spokesman for the UN mission in Afghanistan, said: “Three international Unama (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) staff members were killed, and four international armed security guards were killed.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt later confirmed that one of the dead was a Swede, 27-year-old UN worker Joakim Dungel.
The Norwegian defence ministry said another of those killed was Lt Col Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot. The other foreign victims are believed to be a Romanian and four Nepalese guards.
US President Barack Obama condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”, saying the work of the UN “is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan”.
The top UN representative in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, has flown to the area to handle the matter.
Weapons seized
Witnesses said a crowd of several hundred staged a protest outside the Blue Mosque in the city after Friday prayers.
The crowds moved to outside the UN compound, where a small group broke away.
Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for Balkh province, said the group seized weapons from the guards and opened fire before storming the building.
Local police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai told reporters that two of the UN staff had been beheaded.
However, police Gen Abdul Rafu Taj said that “according to the initial reports… none were beheaded”. He said they were shot in the head.
Kieran Dwyer, director of communications for the UN mission in Afghanistan, said the UN workers had been trapped inside the compound and “hunted down” in what was an “overwhelming situation”.
“These are civilian people, unarmed, here to do human rights work, to work for peace in Afghanistan – they were not prepared for this situation,” he told the BBC.
Mr Dwyer said it was too early to tell how the attack happened or why the UN was targeted, but that the organisation would now take extra security measures.
But he added: “The UN is here to stay. We’re here to work with the people to help them achieve peace, and this sort of thing just highlights how important that is.”
Protests were held in several other Afghan cities on Friday which demonstrators in Herat had called a “day of anger”, Afghanistan’s Noor TV channel reports.
Read the original:
UN chief condemns Afghan killings