http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghans angry over the burning of a Quran at a small Florida church stormed a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing seven foreigners, including four Nepalese guards.

Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

The topic of Quran burning stirred outrage among millions of Muslims and others worldwide after the Rev. Terry Jones' small church, Dove Outreach Center, threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year. The pastor backed down but the church in Gainesville, Florida, went through with the burning last month.

Four protesters also died in the violence in Mazar-i-Sharif, which is on a list of the first seven areas of the country where Afghan security forces are slated to take over from the U.S.-led coalition starting in July. Other demonstrations, which were peaceful, were held in Kabul and Herat in western Afghanistan, fueling resentment against the West at a critical moment in the Afghan war.

Protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium in Herat and chanted "Death to the U.S." and "They broke the heart of Islam." About 100 people gathered at a traffic circle near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. One protester carried a sign that said: "We want these bloody bastard Americans with all their forces to leave Afghanistan."

U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain LeRoy said the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, who is in Mazar-i-Sharif, believes "the U.N. was not the target."

"They wanted to find an international target and the U.N. was the one there in Mazar-i-Sharif," LeRoy told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Initially, Afghan police reported that eight foreigners had been killed in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Late on Friday, Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in Kabul, revised the death toll to seven — four foreign security guards and three other foreigners.

The guards were from Nepal, according to Gen. Daud Daud, commander of Afghan National Police in several northern provinces.

Sweden Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Joakim Dungel, a 33-year-old Swede who worked at the U.N. office, was among those killed.

Norwegian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Maj. Heidi Langvik-Hansen said Lt. Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot working for the U.N., died in the attack.

LeRoy said the other victim was a citizen of Romania and that a number of U.N. personnel were injured and were being evacuated.


so they are mad at the US, and not one person they killed was from the US... sounds like either some good reporting, or really stupid terrorists...

That's because they know the UN lacks testicular fortitude.

Its hard to wrap my brain around the stupid of everyone invovled in the article.

1. The stupid Pastor. He knew something bad would happen but did it anyway.
2. The Afgan mob. Are they really that easy to anger and then go kill people? Instead of shooting terrorists with bullets, the army should shoot them with lithium.

So much for a religon of peace.

didn't that (quran burning) happen around christmas? they are just now hearing about it?

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press – 2 hrs 22 mins ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110402/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan – Anger over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a Florida church fueled a second day of deadly violence half a world away in Afghanistan, where demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze Saturday in a riot that killed nine protesters, officials said.

The church's desecration of the Quran nearly two weeks ago has outraged millions of Muslims and others worldwide, fueling anti-American sentiment that is further straining ties between the Afghan government and the West.

The uproar even brought violence to the normally peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday, when a crowd of protesters — apparently infiltrated by insurgents — stormed a U.N. compound in an outpouring that left four Afghan protesters and seven foreign U.N. employees dead.

The top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, said the organization had no plans to evacuate. It would, however, temporarily redeploy 11 staff members from Maraz-i-Sharif to Kabul

"This is not an evacuation, it is a temporary redeployment because the office is not functioning. We will be ready to go back as soon as we can establish an office that is secure enough," he told reporters.

In an unrelated attack that nonetheless demonstrated the kind of violence plaguing Afghanistan nearly a decade after the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt al-Qaida, two suicide attackers disguised as women in blue burqas blew themselves up and a third was gunned down at a NATO base on the outskirts of Kabul, police said.

The Quran was burned March 20, but many Afghans only found out about it when Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the desecration four days later. The burning took place at the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, the same church where the Rev. Terry Jones had threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year but initially backed down.

On Saturday, thousands of Afghans carrying long sticks and holding copies of the Quran over their heads marched through Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the cradle of the insurgency. The crackle of gunfire could be heard throughout the city, which was blanketed by thick black smoke.

everyone told that idiot not to burn those stupid books... they should charge him and his flock for everyone that the other idiots(muslims) kill...

Burning a stupid book is no reason for these animals to act like animals.

of course not, but that pastor was told what would happen, and that soldiers would be losing their lives over his and the muslims stupidity.
he may not control the muslims, but he did when he burned them...

He was just expressing his first amendment right is all, I know radical muslims don't like it but that's too bad.

i don't agree with burning any book, even tho it is the quran, and those retarded muslims going nuts like that is just silly... at least they are not acting stupid over here....

If it wasn't burning their lil book, they'd find 101 more reasons to kill folks.

I have yet to see any other animal intentionally light something on fire, much less a book!

It has nothing to do with burning the Quran. The militants are looking
for any excuse to foment violence. If there had been no report of
Quran burning then there would have been some other excuse.

The responsibility for the UN killings belongs with the murderers
alone. They had no excuse to murder people. Period. Their actions
defile Islam.

defile islam? what is left to defile? where are the "good ones" that stand against this crap?