UN workers killed in Afghan Koran protest

Eleven people including eight UN employees were killed yesterday in an attack on the organisation’s headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif by demonstrators protesting at the burning of the Koran by a US pastor, police said.

“In total, 11 people were killed – three foreign members of the UN, five Nepalese United Nations guards and three (Afghan) protesters,” General Mohammad Daud Daud, a senior officer in the northern region told AFP.

A UN spokesman in New York confirmed only that there had been an unspecified number of deaths but if the toll is confirmed the attack would appear to be the deadliest on the UN in Afghanistan since the US invasion of 2001.

A spokesman for the UN mission in Kabul, Don McNorton, said: “We are aware of an incident in our Mazar office, we are currently working to ascertain all the facts.”

Six foreign UN staff were killed and another nine wounded, including some seriously, when three armed gunmen wearing explosives-packed vests attacked a central Kabul guesthouse in October 2009.

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

Mazar-i-Sharif is one of seven areas chosen by President Hamid Karzai and the international coalition to launch a process called “transition”. Foreign forces will pass on the responsibility for security from July 1 to Afghan forces.

Foreign forces have traditionally been less visible in the city, deemed relatively safe.

Ahead of yesterday’s violence, Afghanistan had condemned the “disrespectful and abhorrent” burning of the Koran by evangelical preacher Pastor Wayne Sapp in a Florida church, calling it an effort to incite tension between religions.

President Hamid Karzai called on the United States to bring those responsible for the burning of the Islamic holy book on March 21 to justice.

Mr Sapp set light to a Koran under the supervision of Terry Jones, who last year drew condemnation over his aborted plan to burn a pile of the holy books to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Mr Jones cancelled his plans under enormous pressure from world leaders including US President Barack Obama, but the mere threat to burn the Muslim holy book sparked large protests in Afghanistan, where the UN and aid groups warned that civilians and aid workers in the country could be killed if the pastor went ahead.