U.N. death toll in Afghan attack may hit 20: officials

[The Lawspeaker]

U.N. death toll in Afghan attack may hit 20: officials

(Reuters) - The United Nations death toll in an attack on the U.N. compound in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif could be as high as 20, U.N. officials told Reuters on Friday.

That figure, which is likely to change, includes international and local staff, U.N. guards and Nepalese Gurkha soldiers hired to protect the compound, U.N. officials said on condition of anonymity.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Nairobi that the attack was "outrageous and cowardly."

The deaths came after protesters demonstrating against the burning of Islam's holy book, the Koran, over-ran the U.N. compound, police said.

Two of the dead were beheaded by attackers who also burned parts of the compound and climbed up blast walls to topple a guard tower, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region.

If confirmed, it would be the highest ever loss of life in an attack on the United Nations in Afghanistan. The worst previous attack was an insurgent assault on a guesthouse where U.N. staff were staying in October 2009. Five U.N. staffers were killed and nine others wounded.

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

There have been other assaults on the world body in troublespots in the Middle East and North Africa.

A bomb attack on the U.N. compound in Algiers in December 2007 killed 17 U.N. staff. The bombing of a hotel in Baghdad in August 2003 where the U.N. mission had its headquarters took the lives of at least 22 people, including U.N. special envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Source: Reuters (1 April 2011)

Send in the troops now. Now there is a reason.

[The Lawspeaker]

My solution is brutal and not completely in line with any convention or international law: Mazar-i-Sharif will be burned to the ground.

[Thorum]

I am with you Civis.

"At the U.S. State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said the burning of a Quran in Florida was contrary to Americans' respect for Islam and religious tolerance. 'This is an isolated act done by a small group of people and ... does not reflect the respect the people of the United States have toward Islam,' he said.

Respect for Islam? He (Toner) sure as hell is not speaking for me. I have neither repect for Christianity nor Islam both of whom continually shove their ugly faces in my ugly face daily...

Lastly, I see no harm in burning a book...Certainly no reason to kill someone over...

[CyrustheVirus]

Personally I think that for the foreseeable future Afghanistan will remain the wild west,except instead of cool people like this running around.



We will have this.

[Belenus]

Bush was such an idiot. Afghanistan and Iraq are a waste of time and life. If the US wanted to target terrorism they should have invaded Iran from the beginning, as they're largely the source and cause of the problem. But then again, the whole Muslim world is equally dangerous and anywhere you invade will only lead to a protracted guerrilla campaign that cannot be won by any reasonable, humane means. If they're serious about winning, then something radical would have to be done at huge cost in human life. And even then nothing good would be guaranteed to come of it.

Anyway, I think's it's obvious that the modern, Westernised world and Islam are being driven ever further apart and their hostility to one another enflamed. Hopefully this shitty Middle Eastern adventure will soon come to a close, but probably not so long as oil and pipelines are there.

[Peasant]

Bush was such an idiot. Afghanistan and Iraq are a waste of time and life. If the US wanted to target terrorism they should have invaded Iran from the beginning, as they're largely the source and cause of the problem.

Yeah, predominately Shia Iran is clearly the source of Bin Laden and his Sunni friends escapades in 'the west'.

[Svanhild]

Yeah, predominately Shia Iran is clearly the source of Bin Laden and his Sunni friends escapades in 'the west'.

Shia Islam and Sunni Islam are just two different forms of the same lunacy. And lunacy is a fitting description as Allah was once the Arab moon god. Almost all flags of Islamic countries prove it.





and more.

[Peasant]

But at the time, and probably now, Sunni and Shia Islamist terrorist groups were far from united.

[Thorum]

Christopher Hitchens' excellent piece from Slate magazine on the same topic:

"Hamid Karzai's despicable response to the Quran burning in Florida."

[SwordoftheVistula]

Looks like the American far right has finally found a way to destroy the UN