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 Afghanistan as “outrageous and cowardly”.
At least 14 people were killed when demonstrators torched the building in the city of Mazar-e Sharif.
Three UN workers and four Nepalese guards were among the dead.
Local officials said clerics had urged people to protest over last month’s burning of a copy of the Koran in the presence of US pastor Terry Jones.
He has denied responsibility for the violence 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.
Mazar-e Sharif is one of Afghanistan’s largest cities – as well as one of its safest. Just last week, thousands peacefully celebrated the Persian new year.
The city is on a list of areas to be handed to full Afghan security control later this year. The attack on the UN compound raises serious questions about that plan.
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. Special army and police units have been deployed to prevent further unrest.
The authorities are well aware of the dangers of protests spreading. In 2006, anger at cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper swept across Afghanistan. Dozens were killed or injured.
Local police told the BBC that 27 people had subsequently been arrested.
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.”
Initial reports said eight foreign UN workers had died.
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.
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.”
On 20 March, Pastor Wayne Sapp set light to a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.
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.
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.
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 attack on the UN will raise questions of whether the city will be able to make the transition from foreign to Afghan security control later this year.
He adds that in a deeply religiously conservative country such as Afghanistan, the act of Koran burning has the power to inflame passions in otherwise peaceful areas.
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