UN workers killed in Afghanistan over Quran burning in the US
At least eight foreign UN workers have been killed in Afghanistan during an attack on a UN compound in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, officials say.
The violence occurred during a protest over the burning of the Koran in a US church last month.
Several hundred people had been protesting peacefully in Mazar-e Sharif when the scene suddenly turned violent.
The UN has confirmed its workers are among the dead but said the situation remained “confusing”.
“We are currently working to ascertain all the facts and take care of all our staff,” said spokesman Dan McNorton.
He said the top UN representative in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, was travelling to the area to handle the matter, according to a Reuters report.
‘Day of anger’
Witnesses said a crowd of several hundred people were gathered outside the UN compound after Friday prayers when a small group broke away from the main area.
Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for Balkh province, said the group seized weapons from the guards and opened fire before storming the building.
“I can see the smoke over the compound,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Reports say five Nepalese guards and three other members of staff were among the dead.
The BBC’s Paul Wood in Kabul says Mazar-e Sharif is known to be a relatively peaceful part of the country, but that the incident will raise questions of whether the city will be able to make the transition from foreign to Afghan security control later this year.
On 20 March, Pastor Wayne Sapp set light to a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.
The burning took place in the presence of Terry Jones, another US pastor who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Protests against the Florida burning were held in several Afghan cities on Friday – which demonstrators in Herat had called a “day of anger”, Afghanistan’s Noor TV channel reports.
Our correspondent says that in a deeply religiously conservative country such as Afghanistan, that act has the power to inflame passions in otherwise peaceful areas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12940014
