MAZAR-E-SHARIF – Eleven people, including three foreign United Nations (UN) workers, five Nepalese UN guards and three protesters, were killed on Friday in an attack on a UN headquarters in northern Afghanistan by demonstrators protesting at the desecration of the Holy Quran by a US pastor, police said.
“Ten (UN) people have been killed by the protesters … All those killed are foreigners,” police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said. 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.”
The attack followed a protest march led by clerics and attended by around 200 in Kabul on Friday against the burning of the Holy Quran and plans announced by Karzai in February for possible permanent US bases in Afghanistan.The demonstrators, who left from mosques in downtown Kabul after Friday prayers, burned a US flag and stamped on it, shouting “Death to America”.
“Eight foreigners were killed and two were beheaded,” said Ahmadzai. A small group attacked the UN compound, throwing stones and climbing on blast barriers to try and enter. A police source, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, said protesters had stormed into the compound where they attacked the victims.
The chief of the mission in the city was wounded but survived, and the dead included employees of Norwegian, Romanian and Swedish nationalities, he added.
