Death toll rises in Afghanistan after Koran burning

The officers were killed and around 30 people injured in violent demonstrations in Kandahar on Sunday. In Jalalabad, angry protestors burned an effigy of US President Barack Obama.

It follows the massacre of seven UN workers in an attack on a compound in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday.

At least 24 people have now died in violence connected to last month’s burning of the Koran during a mock trial at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.

The Koran was torched by pastor Wayne Sapp under the supervision of Jones, who gained international notoriety last year when he threatened to burn a copy of the holy book on the anniversary of 9/11.

Despite the deaths and international outcry, Jones remains unapologetic about the stunt at his church and has no plans to cancel a protest outside a mosque in Michigan on April 22.

“Our aim is to make an awareness of the radical element of Islam. Obviously it is terrible any time people are murdered or killed. I think that on the other hand, it shows the radical element of Islam,” he said.

The Koran burning and subsequent violence have been condemned by US President Barack Obama.

“The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry,” he said in a statement released by the White House.

“However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency dignity.”

The World Evangelical Alliance has also condemned the church’s actions and the violent responses.

“No matter how much we disagree and find abhorrent the actions of [Terry] Jones, responding in violence can never be justified,” said Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, chief executive officer and secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance.

The WEA urged Muslim leaders to call for an end to the violence and “explain … that the actions of this tiny extremist group who have burnt the Quran are absolutely condemned by Christians globally”.