Four Nepalese guards and three other international UN staff have been killed in an attack by protesters on a United Nations compound in Afghanistan in which a number of attackers have also died, a UN spokesman said.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq gave the official toll of seven UN dead. A senior UN official earlier gave a higher toll, saying that five Nepalese guards were killed instead of four.
The UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that the Nepalese Gurkha guards killed some protesters before being fatally wounded by the crowd which attacked the UN compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, protesting over the burning of a Koran by a US pastor.
An Afghan provincial governor has said at least five Afghan protesters were killed in the attack.
Another UN official told AFP that a new review of security at all UN facilities in Afghanistan would be carried out.
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Koran-burning pastor calls for holding Islam accountable
The US pastor, whose burning of a Koran sparked deadly violence in Afghanistan, has called for "immediate" US and UN action against its perpetrators, saying the whole religion of Islam must be held accountable.
"Islam is not a religion of peace," Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones said in a statement issued after seven foreign UN workers had been killed in Afghanistan by protesters angered by the Koran burning, in the deadliest attack on the UN there since the 2001 invasion.
"The time has come to hold Islam accountable," he added.
Two killed in Koran burning protest in Kandahar
Two Afghans were killed on Saturday during protests in Kandahar city against the burning of a
Koran in the US, according to a reporter who saw their bodies.
The reporter said the protests had spread into several locations in the southern city and smoke was rising from different parts of the city as protesters burned cars and tyres. Gunshots could be heard, he added.
