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

*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.

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

Victim: The first named victim is 53-year-old Norwegian pilot Lt. Col Siri Skare who was working as a UN military advisor in the country

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

Controversy: U.S. Pastor Terry Jones, pictured last September, gained worldwide attention after he planned to burn a Koran

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.

'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.

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.

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'.

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

 Fight: It appears guards at the U.N. compound fought back injuring Afghan's who attacked the base

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

 Suspects: Afghan officials suspect those who attacked the base were insurgents who had blended into the angry crowd before carrying out the violence

India court to rule on mosque row on Thursday

An Indian court will rule on Thursday whether Hindus or Muslims own land around a demolished mosque in northern India, a judgement haunted by memories of a 1992 riot, some of the country’s worst violence since the partition.

The verdict could add to the security worries of the government, which already has its hands full dealing with the preparations for the Commonwealth Games that are bedeviled by concerns over filthy accommodation, health and security.

A trader waits for customers as he sells photos of Hindu Gods in the Indian town of Ayodhya September 22, 2010. A court will rule this Thursday whether Hindus or Muslims own land around a demolished mosque in Ayodhya, a judgement haunted by memories of a 1992 riot.




“The verdict will be announced on 30th (September) at 3.30pm,” said Subodh Sahay, registrar of the court in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier in NEW DELHI, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the lower court to decide on the ownership of a religious site where the razing of a mosque in 1992 sparked rioting between Hindus and Muslims that killed some 2,000 people.

A verdict on its ownership was to have come on September 24 from a lower court in Uttar Pradesh state, but the top court suspended that imminent verdict last week, responding to arguments that a chance should be given to reconciliation in the 60-year-old case.

“The petition stands dismissed,” India’s Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia said, referring to the appeal to seek deferment of any verdict on the ownership issue.

Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center burn Koran Day - Safety concern for Florida government over 9/11 Quran burn

Florida's governor is concerned about safety at home and around the world, a feeling shared by national and
world leaders, over a plan by the head of a small church to burn copies of Islam's holiest text to mark the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday he would closely monitor what happens Saturday at the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville to try to ensure people are safe. U.S. embassies around the world will be doing the same after being ordered by the State Department to assess their security. Officials fear the burning could spark anti-American violence, including against soldiers, a concern shared by the U.S. commander in Afghanistan.



Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center speaks at a news conference in Gainesville, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Jones said that he is going forward with a plan to burn copies of the Quran at his church on Saturday, Sept. 11.



"In addition to being offensive, the Gainesville protest puts at risk those brave Americans who are fighting abroad for the freedoms and values that we believe in as Americans," said Crist, who is running as an independent for the U.S. Senate.

Bahrain's Foreign Ministry called the plan a "shameful act which is incompatible with the principles of tolerance and coexistence." The statement Thursday was among the first official denunciations in the Arab world against the plan.

Despite the mounting pressure to call off the bonfire, the Rev. Terry Jones said he has received much encouragement and was going through with his plan. Supporters have sent him copies of the Quran to burn, he said.

"As of right now, we are not convinced that backing down is the right thing," said Jones, 58, who took no questions at a news conference Wednesday.

Jones was flanked by an armed escort and said he has received more than 100 death threats since announcing in July that he would stage "International Burn-a-Koran Day." The book, according to Jones, is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.

Muslims consider the Quran the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect. At least one cleric in Afghanistan said it is the duty of Muslims to react and that could mean killing Americans.

At home, the Gainesville Police Department will be dealing with some 90,000 fans and even more tailgaters expected for the Florida-South Florida football game across the city. The game is at 12:20 and the Quran burning is set for 6 p.m.

No one from the department was available to immediately comment late Wednesday on security measures at the church where at least one counter-protest was planned by a University of Florida student group.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, e-mailed The Associated Press to say "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence." It comes as an emotional debate continues over a proposed Islamic center near the ground zero site of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.

Petraeus spoke Wednesday with Afghan President Karzai about the matter, according to a military spokesman Col. Erik Gunhus.

"They both agreed that burning of a Quran would undermine our effort in Afghanistan, jeopardize the safety of coalition troopers and civilians," Gunhus said, and would "create problems for our Afghan partners ... as it likely would be Afghan police and soldiers who would have to deal with any large demonstrations."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the pastor's plans were outrageous, and along with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, urged Jones to cancel the event.

"It is regrettable that a pastor in Gainesville, Florida, with a church of no more than 50 people can make this outrageous and distrustful, disgraceful plan and get the world's attention, but that's the world we live in right now," Clinton said in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Not just the Democratic administration has weighed in. Ex-Alaska governor and former Republican candidate for vice president Sarah Palin said in a Facebook post that though people have the constitutional right to burn the Quran if they choose, doing so would be an "insensitive and an unnecessary provocation — much like building a mosque at ground zero."

"I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event," she wrote. "It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire."

Conservative radio and television host Glenn Beck wrote in an Internet blog that burning the Quran is like burning the flag or the Bible — something people can do in the United States, but shouldn't. Legal experts have said the burning would likely be protected by the First Amendment's right to free speech.

"Our good Muslim friends and neighbors will be saddened," Beck wrote. "It makes the battle that they face inside their own communities even harder."

In Afghanistan, the plan provoked outrage.

"It is the duty of Muslims to react," said Mohammad Mukhtar, a cleric and candidate for the Afghan parliament in the Sept. 18 election. "When their holy book Quran gets burned in public, then there is nothing left. If this happens, I think the first and most important reaction will be that wherever Americans are seen, they will be killed. No matter where they will be in the world they will be killed."

Jones' Dove Outreach Center is independent of any denomination. It follows the Pentecostal tradition, which teaches that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in the modern day. Pentecostals often view themselves as engaged in spiritual warfare against satanic forces.

The Vatican also denounced the protest and a religious watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said it would send a copy of the Quran to the Afghan National Army for every one that might be burned.

Jones' neighbors in Gainesville, a city of 125,000 anchored by the sprawling University of Florida campus, also have said they disapprove. At least two dozen Christian churches, Jewish temples and Muslim organizations in the city have mobilized to plan inclusive events — some will read from the Quran at their own weekend services.


Wayne Sapp, right, an Associate Pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center, armed with a pistol on his hip, escorts Imam Muhammed Musri, left, President of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, in the church to meet with Pastor Terry Jones in Gainesville, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010. Jones stated that he is going forward with a scheduled burning of copies of the Quran at his church on Saturday, Sept. 11.

Pressure mounts in U.S. against Koran-burning plan

Civil and military leaders stepped up calls on Tuesday for an obscure U.S. pastor to drop his plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, as fears grew it would fan religious hatred.

Afghan protesters shout slogans during a protest against an American church's plans to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, in Kabul, September 6, 2010.


Pastor Terry Jones of the small Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center church, which has announced the Koran-burning for Saturday, said he was praying about the event but showed no immediate signs of backing down from his plan.



The planned public torching of the Muslim holy book on U.S. soil already has triggered angry protests in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are fighting Taliban militants, and U.S. military commanders said the event could endanger Americans' lives.

It comes at a time of heated debate in the United States over a proposal to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque close to the site in New York of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Opponents of the building plan say it is insensitive to families of the victims of the 2001 attacks by the militant Islamist group al Qaeda.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday condemned the proposed Koran-burning, calling it disrespectful and saying it could put Western troops in Afghanistan at risk.

Authorities in Gainesville were preparing special security measures to prevent trouble on Saturday at the event by the little-known church, which has about 30 members and calls itself a "New Testament, Charismatic, Non-Denominational Church." It says it wants to "expose Islam" as a "violent and oppressive religion."

The city's mayor and police department repeated appeals to Jones call off the Koran-burning. They warned that while his First Amendment constitutional rights guaranteed freedom of speech, assembly and religion, he would violate city ordinances if he went ahead without proper authorization. City officials already have denied his request for a burn permit.

"EMBARRASSMENT TO GAINESVILLE"

"We hope that good judgment will prevail," said the city's communications manager, Bob Woods.

Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe condemned what he called the church's "offensive behavior."

"The Dove World Outreach Center is a tiny, fringe group and an embarrassment to our community," Lowe said on his Facebook site. "They are opposed to the true character of Gainesville."

Jones told CNN he was seriously considering the U.S. military commanders' warnings about possible Muslim retaliation to his act but he seemed defiant.

"When do we stop backing down? ... when does America stand for truth?" he said in the interview broadcast by CNN. "Instead of us being blamed for what other people will do or might do, why don't we send a warning to them?"

A number of death threats, including one reported to be from a known "terrorist organization," had been made against Jones, and the FBI and other federal agencies were working with the Gainesville authorities, law enforcement sources said.

Gainesville police spokeswoman Tscharna Senn told Reuters there would be a "heightened police presence" around the private property where Jones planned the Koran-burning, in a residential neighborhood of Gainesville. She gave no details, citing security precautions.

Law enforcement sources said Jones' church had been in trouble before with authorities over a bid to send members' children to school wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Islam is of the Devil." Local schools barred the T-shirts.

On Monday in the Afghan capital Kabul, several hundred people, mostly students, demonstrated against the planned Koran-burning in Florida, chanting "Death to America."

The U.S. government, through its embassy in Kabul, condemned what it called "acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam."