KABUL—Deadly protests over a Quran-burning ceremony in Florida continued for a second day in Afghanistan on Saturday, with clashes in the southern city of Kandahar following Friday's mob rampage at the United Nations office in the north.
At least seven foreigners and several Afghans were killed when a frenzied mob overran the U.N. compound in Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday.
On Saturday, fresh protests broke out in Kandahar, with a mob marching on U.N. offices there and chanting "Death to America." At least nine Afghans were killed as shooting erupted all over the city, the Taliban's spiritual homeland, officials said.
Rioters in Kandahar were stopped well short of the U.N. compound.
Friday's attack in Mazar-e-Sharif was the deadliest for the U.N. in Afghanistan, with a toll exceeding that of the October 2009 Taliban assault that killed eight people at a U.N. guest house in Kabul. The Taliban denied responsibility for Friday's deaths, ascribing them to spontaneous popular action.
The Afghan tumult erupted days after President Hamid Karzai condemned as "disrespectful and abhorrent" the March 20 burning of Islam's holy book by the church of Florida pastor Terry Jones. Saturday, he ordered Afghan security services to make sure that continuing protests don't turn violent.
Also Saturday in Kabul, two insurgents fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades at Camp Phoenix, a U.S.-led coalition base that is one of the main training centers for the Afghan army and police. The attack was thwarted and both insurgents killed with no allied casualties, the coalition said.
The attack on the U.N. office in Mazar-e-Sharif began after Friday's prayers, when thousands of demonstrators poured out of the historic Blue Mosque and marched more than a mile to the fortified compound. There their anger took a deadly turn.
Demonstrators chanting "Death to America" and "Allahu Akbar" threw stones at the U.N. compound and swarmed the gates as security guards opened fire, two protesters said.
"A few people entered the gates and the entire crowd followed, beating the guards and burning cars," said Jumadin, a 22-year-old taxi driver who took part in the demonstration. "The police arrived and started shooting protesters, enraging the crowd further."
Three European U.N. staff members—a female lieutenant colonel and heads of the political and human-rights sections—were killed, according to diplomats in Kabul. The lieutenant colonel was Norwegian; the two other U.N. staffers came from Romania and Sweden.
Four Nepalese Gurkha security guards were also killed, officials said. Afghan officials said between five and 12 Afghans died. A Russian diplomat who heads the office, responsible for northern Afghanistan, was severely beaten but survived.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killings as "outrageous and cowardly." The attack ranks among the deadliest ever for the U.N., behind the 2003 bombing of its headquarters in Baghdad and the 2007 assault on its offices in Algiers.
President Barack Obama called for calm and support for the U.N. "Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens," Mr. Obama said.
Rev. Jones, the Florida pastor, swiftly held the Islamic religion itself responsible for the "tragic" attack in Mazar-e-Sharif. "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," Rev. Jones said. "The time has come to hold Islam accountable."
Rev. Jones scuttled his widely publicized plan for an "International Burn a Quran Day" last autumn. The event had been condemned by U.S. politicians and military commanders, with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, warning it could jeopardize American soldiers and provide extremists with inflammatory anti-Western fodder.
But last month the burning went ahead, in a ceremony at Rev. Jones's Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. Stephanie Sapp, who said her husband, Pastor Wayne Sapp, participated, said the Quran was placed "on trial," was found "guilty," and was executed by being set ablaze.
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