At least seven United Nations workers were killed Friday in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, during a protest against a U.S. pastor’s burning of the Koran. Earlier reports put the death toll as high as 12. 

Screen shot of video from the BBC

The New York Times reports:

The crowd, which he estimated at 20,000, overwhelmed police forces and the United Nations security guards, and the weapons they used in the attack may have been those they seized from the United Nations guards, he said. He claimed that some insurgents disguised as demonstrators had used the protest as a pretext to attack the United Nations.

Gen. Abdul Raouf Taj, the deputy police commander for Balkh Province, where Mazar-i-Sharif is located, put the death toll at eight foreign staff workers and said there had not been any beheadings. The attack was carried out by “thousands of people,” he said. “Police tried to stop them, but protesters began stoning the building and finally the situation got out of control."  

Florida minister Terry Jones burned a copy of the Koran on Sunday March 20 during a mock trial and “punishment” of the Muslim holy book.

President Barack Obama took to Good Morning America on Thursday before the Koran-burning event to plead with Jones not to go through with it.

Jones told the BBC that he felt no responsibility for the attack: “We are not responsible. That is an excuse. If they did not have the Koran burning, they would have had a different excuse.”

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