At least five people have been killed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar,on a second day of violent protests over the burning of a Quran by an obscure U.S. pastor,a health official and government spokesman said on Saturday. A suicide attack also hit a NATO military base in the capital Kabul,the day after protesters over-ran a UN mission in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and killed seven foreign staff,in the worst ever attack on the UN in Afghanistan. Four dead bodies brought to a hospital in Kandahar city,the spiritual heartland of the Taliban,showed signs they had been beaten and hit with stones said Abdul Qayum Pukhla,the senior health official for the province. A band of around 150 men who had taken to the streets to denounce Quran burning set tyres alight,smashed up shops and attacked a photographer,Reuters' witnesses said. The reporter was hit over the head and had his camera taken from him and smashed,by protesters who discussed killing him. Police kept other journalists from approaching the crowd,which was shouting slogans including death to America. The spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province said the protest was organised by the Taliban who used the Quran burning as an excuse to incite violence in a city where their reach has been curtailed by an aggressive NATO-led military campaign. The demonstration in Kandahar was planned by insurgents to take advantage of the situation and to create insecurity,said Zalmay Ayoubi,spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. He put the toll at five and said 46 people had been wounded. In Kabul on Saturday,a small group of burkha-clad insurgents attacked a coalition base,although they caused only light injuries to three soldiers,police and NATO-led troops said More protests are possible across volatile and deeply religious Afghanistan,where anti-Western sentiment has been fuelled for years by civilian casualties. Around 1,000 people protested peacefully in the northern province of Tahar,said Shah Jahan Noori,provincial police chief. INSURGENTS OR PROTESTERS? The Taliban said they had no role in Friday's assault on the U.N. office in the usually peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif,after both the provincial governor and a senior U.N. official suggested provocateurs among the crowd had sparked or led the vicious attack. The Taliban had nothing to do with this,it was a pure act of responsible Muslims,spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said by phone from an undisclosed location. The foreigners brought the wrath of the Afghans on themselves by burning the Quran. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemari Bashery said police reports suggested the attack was not planned. Thousands of demonstrators flooded into the streets of a city considered safe enough to be in the vanguard of a crucial security transition,after Friday prayers ended,and many headed straight for the U.N. mission. There they overwhelmed security guards,burned parts of the compound and climbed blast walls to topple a guard tower. The throat of one of slain foreigners had been slit,the U.N. said. Five Afghan protesters were also killed and others wounded,some after trying to take weapons off U.N. security guards. The attack took many in the city,one of the country's most prosperous and stable,by surprise and some demonstrators said they had not expected the extreme violence. It is our right to demonstrate because they burned our holy book,but I was not there to kill people,said 20-year-old Habeebullah,who was wounded in one leg. However in a reflection of deep anti-Western sentiments fuelled by anger over civilian casualties,some said they had little sympathy for the foreign dead. I took part in the demonstration to curse the foreigners but I had no weapon to harm anyone,said shopkeeper Rahim Mohammad.
