KABUL, Afghanistan, April 3 (UPI) -- International aid agencies said most staff in Afghanistan was in lockdown Sunday after deadly attacks spawned by a Florida preacher's burning of the Koran.
Violent fury erupted after Friday prayers in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, north of Kabul, when clerics denounced the burning of the Muslim holy book in Florida by a fundamentalist preacher last month.
Protesters stormed a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif and killed seven international workers. Other protesters, some wearing suicide bomb vests, stormed a U.S. military installation north of Kabul, but were killed by U.S. forces. Officials in Kandahar said nine people had been killed there in protests, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The newspaper said most international organizations had instructed non-Afghan staff to stay indoors and "out of public view" for their own safety.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement of mourning for the victims and a sharp rebuke to the Afghans' response.
"The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," the statement said. "However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.
"No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act."
