US News

Twelve killed during Koran burning protest at UN HQ in northern Afghanistan

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — Demonstrators incensed at the burning of a Koran by a US pastor attacked a UN headquarters in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Sharif Friday, killing at least 12, including three European UN workers and four Nepalese UN guards.

Balkh provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor said five others, thought to be protesters, were also killed and at least 20 people were wounded and 20 arrested.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the violence, saying it was the first step in a campaign against the upcoming presidential elections.

Accounts of the attack were contradictory but indicated the killings had been carried out execution style. Local police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said, “two of the killed UN staff were beheaded.”

But General Abdul Rauf Taj, a police official in Balkh province, said that “according to the initial reports … none have been beheaded. They were shot in the head.”

The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed Friday that a 33-year-old Swede was among those killed and

the Norwegian army said a Norwegian officer was “in all likelihood” among the victims.

A Romanian citizen working for the UN also was killed, official sources told the Romanian news agency Agerpres.

A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Nepalese Gurkha guards killed a number of protesters before they were fatally wounded by the crowd.

Meanwhile, at the UN itself, the UN Security Council called a special meeting on Afghanistan Friday to discuss the attack.

“The dedicated staff of the UN Mission in Afghanistan does courageous work every single day to support the Afghan people under extremely difficult circumstances, including repeated attacks,” said US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, ahead of the meeting.

“It is inexcusable that these brave souls would be targeted for violence.”

In Washington, US President Barack Obama said he condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.” White House spokesman Jay Carney said it was “in no way justified, regardless of what the motivation was.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned it as an “outrageous and cowardly attack” and deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Moon’s special representative in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, was “on his way to Mazar-i-Sharif now to deal with the situation personally on the ground.”

An AFP reporter in Mazar-i-Sharif said the violence continued for three and a half hours, with small arms fire and explosions heard. There were about 500 protesters, he said.

Several thousand people also protested the Koran burning in the northwestern city of Herat, according to an eyewitness. The protesters, all men, burned US flags and stamped on them.

Protesters marched in Mazar-i-Sharif and in the capital Kabul on Friday to protest the burning of Islam’s holy book by US pastor Wayne Sapp last month as well as possible plans to establish permanent US bases in the country.

Afghanistan condemned the “disrespectful and abhorrent” burning of the Koran by Sapp — an evangelical preacher — in a Florida church, calling it an effort to incite tension between religions.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai called on the United States to bring those responsible for the burning of the Islamic holy book to justice.

Sapp set alight a Koran under the supervision of pastor Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn the holy book to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Following Friday’s attack, Jones said, “We are devastated by that information, that news.”

But, he said, “We don’t feel responsible for that. What we would like to see is the United States government standing up, the UN standing up.

“It’s time to stop ignoring the violence going on in Muslim countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he added.

Afghanistan is a deeply devout Islamic country where even rumors that the Koran has been insulted can result in deadly violence.

Some 200 protesters demonstrated at the American Embassy in Kabul Friday. The demonstrators set off from mosques in downtown Kabul after Friday prayers, burning a US flag and stamping on it, shouting “Death to America.”

“A mullah’s speech encouraged people for the demonstration because of the burning of a Koran in the United States, and because we don’t want US bases in Afghanistan,” Mawladad, one of the protesters, said.

Karzai confirmed in February that he was discussing with the United States the possible establishment of permanent US military bases after the Afghan forces take responsibility from foreign forces in 2014.