Kandahar, April 02: Four people died on Saturday in new protests against a Quran burning in the US, a day after seven UN staff were killed by a mob in the worst attack on the world body in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
At least 32 were also injured during the fresh protests in the main southern city of Kandahar, a doctor said.
“Four dead bodies were brought to our hospital,” said Abdul Qayoum Pukhla, a senior doctor at Kandahar’s Mirwais hospital. “Thirty-two people suffering from bullet injuries and wounds caused by rocks have been admitted.”
Police had fired into the air to try to prevent thousands of protesters marching towards the UN offices and provincial administration headquarters in the city, a report said.
Kandahar is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban, who have fought an insurgency against President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul and its Western allies since they were ousted by the US-led invasion.
“Death to America” and “Death to Karzai” chanted the demonstrators. “They have insulted our Quran,” shouted one.
The protest came a day after seven UN foreign staff — three Europeans and four Nepalese guards — were killed during similar demonstrations in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The Nepalese guards fought desperately against armed protesters but were overwhelmed and died with three workers they were protecting at the compound in the normally relatively calm city.
US President Barack Obama condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon said it was “an outrageous and cowardly attack”.
The UN did not announce the nationalities of the three civilian staff killed. But Sweden named one as 33-year-old Swede, Joakim Dungel. Norway said Lieutenant Colonel Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot, was killed. Diplomats said the third was a Romanian.
The attackers broke away from a large demonstration in the city against the burning of a Quran, Islam’s holy book, at an evangelical church in Florida.
“Some of them were clearly armed and they stormed into the building” and set it on fire, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told reporters after briefing the Security Council at UN headquarters in New York.
“The security guards, who were the Gurkhas, tried their best but the number was so high that they were not able to prevent it.”
He denied reports that two of the dead were beheaded but said one victim had his throat cut.
UN officials said the Gurkhas, security mainstays in many world trouble spots, were believed to have killed a number of assailants before they were overcome.
Balkh Provincial Governor Atta Mohammad Noor said five other people, thought to be protesters, were also killed while at least 20 people were wounded in the fighting. About 20 people were arrested, he said.
Hundreds of people had taken to the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif to protest against last month’s Quran burning, and local police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said Taliban militants had infiltrated the demonstrators.
An unknown number of UN staff were wounded and had been evacuated, Le Roy said. But the Mazar-i-Sharif base would remain open, he insisted.
Ban’s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, and a top peacekeeping official had left for Afghanistan to conduct a review of security at UN facilities, Le Roy said.
The 15-nation UN Security Council held a special meeting on the incident, calling on the Afghan government to step up protection for UN workers.
-Agencies