Afghans kill 12 in protest over Koran-burning

boston.com

2 04 2011

Mullahs steered worshipers to vengeance

MAZAR-e-SHARIF, Afghanistan — Stirred up by three angry mullahs who urged them to avenge the burning of a Koran at a Florida church, thousands of protesters overran the compound of the United Nations in this northern Afghan city yesterday, killing at least 12 people, Afghan and UN officials said.

The dead included at least seven UN workers — four Nepalese guards and three Europeans from Romania, Sweden, and Norway — according to UN officials in New York. One was a woman. Early reports, later denied by Afghan officials, said that at least two of the dead had been beheaded. Five Afghans were also killed.

The attack was the deadliest for the United Nations in Afghanistan since 11 people were killed in 2009, when Taliban suicide bombers invaded a guest house in Kabul. It also underscored the latent hostility toward the nine-year foreign presence here, even in a city long considered to be among the safest in Afghanistan — so safe that US troops no longer patrol here in any numbers.

Unable to find Americans on whom to vent their anger, the mob turned instead on the next-best symbol of Western intrusion — the nearby UN headquarters. Read more...

Violence erupts in Afghanistan after burning of Quran

xinhuanet.com

2011-04-02

BEIJING,April 2 (Xinhuanet) — The United Nations says the death toll in an attack on its compound in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif could be as high as 20. The figure includes international and local staff, U.N. guards and Nepalese Gurkha soldiers hired to protect the compound.

Friday’s killings happened as demonstrators stormed a UN office in northern Afghanistan, opening fire on guards and setting fires inside the compound.

The protesters were angry with a reported burning of the Muslim holy book at a small church in the US state of Florida.

The protest began peacefully when several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the mission’s compound to denounce the Quran’s destruction.

It turned violent when some protesters grabbed weapons from the UN guards and opened fire on the police, then stormed the building. Read more…

Informations

Mazār-i-Sharīf or Mazār-e Sharīf (Persian: مزارِ شریف ) is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 375,181 as of 2006. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by roads to Kabul in the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north.

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~ par Alain Bertho sur 2 avril 2011.

Publié dans émeutes, riots