Karzai expresses ‘grief’ to UN’s Ban over killings

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday voiced sympathy for the deaths of seven UN staff in an attack on their office during anti-US protests, his office said. Karzai telephoned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to give his condolences over the incident, it said. Seven UN foreign staff -- three Europeans and and four Nepalese guards -- were killed on Friday when an angry mob attacked the United Nation's headquarters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif following the burning of a Koran in the US. Karzai "spoke this morning (Saturday) on the phone with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon to convey his grief over the attack on the UN office in Mazar-i-Sharif in which seven of his staff were killed", the president's office said in a statement. Karzai described the attack as "ruthless" and said his administration "is committed to launching an all-out probe into the incident and bringing to justice those responsible", the statement said. The president called on Ban to "play his role in raising public awareness on the significance of resorting to non-violence and non-desecration of faith... particularly in countries where such sacrilegious practices were carried out", it said, in an apparent reference to the US. The burning of the Koran by evangelical preacher Pastor Wayne Sapp in a Florida church last month has sparked angry protests in Islamic countries. At least nine people were killed and dozens more injured during a fresh anti-US protests in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday.