At least 10 people were killed and 83 wounded in southern Afghanistan Saturday in a second day of protests against a Quran burning by a radical Christian church in the United States.
Security forces fired shots into the air to disperse the protesters as they marched through the streets of Kandahar city, setting cars and buildings on fire.
The Saturday riots came a day after a group of people stormed the United Nations complex in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing seven foreign workers.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the Quran burning in Florida, saying the desecration of any holy book, including the Quran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry. But he also said that to attack and kill innocent people in response is “outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.” Mr. Obama added that no religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act.
The U.N. special representative in Kabul, Staffan de Mistura, said Saturday a group of insurgents had infiltrated Friday's protest and launched the deadly attack.
De Mistura said the Russian head of the U.N. office who is fluent in Dari survived after convincing the attackers he was Muslim. But the three other foreigners — from Norway, Sweden and Romania — were pulled out by the mob and killed one by one, de Mistura said. Four Nepalese guards also were killed in the attack, while two others managed to escape along with two Afghan U.N. workers.
De Mistura said the attack on the U.N. mission will not deter the world body's presence in the country.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday to express his shock. He also spoke by telephone with the prime minister of Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and the foreign ministers of Norway, Sweden and Romania to express his deep condolences on the deaths of their citizens in the attack.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. General David Petraeus, joined Mr. Karzai, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the international community in strongly condemning Friday's killings.
Also Saturday, NATO officials said insurgents dressed as women attacked a coalition base in Kabul.
NATO said three militants — two of them suicide bombers — were killed in the attack and three NATO service members were slightly wounded.