2 UN staff beheaded and five others murdered in protest against U.S. pastor who burnt Koran

Mtoday news / Mail

Afganistan, April 1: Koran burning pastor says ’The time has come to hold Islam accountable’

    U.N. sources say final death toll could rise as high as 20

    Taliban behind attacks, reports suggest

    Demonstrators at the burnings take place across the Middle East

    One of the dead is a 53-year-old female Norwegian pilot

    Mastermind behind attacks - a known militant - arrested say Afghan police

    Afghan authorities suspect insurgents blended into protesters

    Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish and Nepalese nationals among those killed

At least seven United Nations staff were murdered - two by beheading - after extremists stormed their compound in northern Afghanistan today.

 

According to reports, protesters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif beheaded two U.N. guards, seized their weapons and began shooting those inside the compound after a demonstration against Koran burnings in the U.S. turned violent.

Reports emerged tonight that the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were part of a campaign of violence in the run up to presidential elections.

The bloodshed is the worst attack on the U.N. in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

At least four Afghan workers were also killed and officials fear the total death toll could rise to 20.

The rampage began when over a thousand protesters flooded into the streets after Friday prayers where they heard reports about the Koran burnings in America last month.

After slaying the guards, the armed mob scaled the compound’s blast walls before setting fire to a guard tower and several other buildings.

An Afghan police source, who asked not to be named, said the chief of the mission in the city was wounded but survived.

Among those murdered were Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish and Nepalese nationals. Two were decapitated, it is understood.

And tonight pastor Terry Jones, the man many hold responsible for instigating the wave of protests, remained defiant over his decision to hold the Koran burning, saying it was time for ’Islam to be held accountable’.

He said: ’We must hold these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities. The time has come to hold Islam accountable.

’Our United States government and our President must take a close, realistic look at the radical element Islam. Islam is not a religion of peace.

’We demand action from the United Nations. Muslim dominated countries can no longer be allowed to spread their hate against Christians and minorities.





Protest: Thousands of protectors flooded the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif chanting anti-American slogans before the violence broke out




Attack: Smoke billows from the UN headquarters after protesters attacked the compound in Mazar-i-Sharif

’They must alter the laws that govern their countries to allow for individual freedoms and rights, such as the right to worship, free speech, and to move freely without fear of being attacked or killed.’

They were protesting at last week’s ceremonial burning of a copy of the Koran at a church in Florida.

The controversial pastor triggered international outrage last year when he urged Americans to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

 

Firebrand: Pastor Terry Jones threatened to burn a koran last year and carried the threat out last month


He relented following an intervention by President Obama but on March 21 he and pastor Wayne Sapp finally carried out their threat.

After Sapp set fire to the text, he let it burn for ten minutes.

Mohammad Azim, a businessman in Mazer-i-Sharif, said that before the violence, clerics with loudspeakers had driven around the city in two cars to invite residents to the protest.

As the violent mobs dissipated this evening, reports of the UN dead began to trickle in.

The Norwegian Defence Ministry said one of the victims was Lt. Col Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot.

A Swede and four U.N, guards from Nepal were also killed. The nationality of the seventh victim has not been released.

According to Afghan officials it looks increasingly likely that the attacks were carried out by insurgents who had blended into the angry crowds.

This evening Afghan police said they had arrested the suspected mastermind behind the attack.




Hysteria: Preachers rode around after Friday prayers encouraging the population to join protests directed against foreign forces in the country


Rawof Taj, deputy police chief in Balkh province, said this evening he was one of more than 20 people arrested after the violence.

Taj said the suspected mastermind was from Kapisa province, a hotbed of the insurgency about 250 miles south east of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Staffan De Mistura, the top UN representative in Afghanistan, was heading to Mazar-i-Sharif to handle the matter personally.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Nairobi that the attack was ’outrageous and cowardly’.

The worst previous attack was in 2009 in an insurgent assault on a guesthouse where UN staff were staying. Five UN staffers were killed and nine others wounded.

In October 2010, several militants were killed when they attempted to ambush the UN compound in Herat dressed in burkas worn by women.

General Daud Daud, commander of Afghan National Police in several northern provinces, said those killed included five Nepalese guards who were working for the UN and two other foreigners employed at the complex.

A UN spokesman confirmed that workers had been killed at the mission, but he said the situation on the ground was still confusing and it was difficult to ’ascertain facts’.




Wounded: Afghans carry a man wounded by security guards when protesters attacked the UN headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif




Outrage: Pakistani women shout slogans during a protest against the controversial US Pastor Terry Jones, in Karachi, Pakistan today

The deaths are a major setback for the U.N. and international forces who want the Afghan government to take control of its own security by 2014.

Only last week President Hamid Karzai said the city of Mazar-i-Sharif would be one of the first areas handed over to Afghan control this year.

Simmering anger at the burnings finally erupted  across the Middle East today.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through the western Afghan city of Herat.

There, protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium and chanted ’Death to the US’ and ’They broke the heart of Islam’.

Around 200 also protested near the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Both protests remained relatively peaceful.

Demonstrations against the Koran burning also took place in Pakistan today.

Women representing the Working Women Welfare Trust marched through the streets of Karachi voicing their anger against Pastor Jones.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a ’crime against a religion’.

He denounced it as a ’disrespectful and abhorrent act’ and called on the U.S. and the UN to bring to justice those who burned the holy book and issue a response to Muslims around the world.

He also said Mazar-i-Sharif would be one of the first parts of the war-torn country that Afghan security would take from Nato forces.