Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - system.UInt64 deadly protests in the northern Afghanistan of a Quran burn spread the country's war-torn southern region on Saturday, with government officials of reporting at least nine civilians dead and dozens injured.
The violence struck the city of Kandahar when demonstrators on the streets to protest the flaring of Islam holiest book of a U.S. Church.
The unrest followed a demonstration on Friday in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, in which five demonstrators and seven UN employees were killed when an angry crowd of UN stormed compound is.
President Barack Obama on Saturday extended condolences to the families and loved ones of those in Mazar-e Sharif killed, but also complained about the burning of the Quran.
"The desecration of a holy text... is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," he said in a statement released by the White House. "However, is attacking and killing innocent people in reaction outrageous, and an affront to human decency and would."
Besmellah Blanford painting, Kandahar said provincial member, hundreds gathered in Kandahar City, burn the Quran to protest.
"The enemies of peace in Afghanistan today killed and injured in Kandahar, our people", said a statement from the Office of the Governor of Kandahar.
The demonstration began peacefully, but demonstrators turned violent, setting one fire school and vehicles in Kandahar City, said Zalma? Ayoubi, spokesman for the Governor of Kandahar province.
Together with the nine deaths 73 others were injured in the provincial government said.
Ayoubi said Afghan security forces arrested 17 people, including seven who were armed and are suspected, shooting at protesters.
Pastor Terry Jones of the 11 September 2001, sparked international controversy on the ninth anniversary of planned attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last year as his Church in Gainesville, Florida, "International burn a Quran day".
Jones Church not host a Quran burn on that day, but the Dove World Outreach Center website announced that a "International judges the Koran day" for last month set.
A picture of a burning book elsewhere showed on the website blog and read, "the event is over, the Qur'an was found guilty and a copy was burned in the building."
Some witnesses in Kandahar said demonstrators by the police were shot.
"I saw three personally who shot to death (were), and one of them was shot dead just next to me," said protester Shah sea.
But police said they shot at nor anyone killed.
"It (was) shots fired in the air to the people under control, and fortunately not one to bring one of the shots was killed", said Zemarai Corel, spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Taliban said that the group not behind any deaths was during the event.
"What was happening today in Kandahar the feeling of the nation, and the Islamic movement of the Taliban was not involved in (violence)," said Zabiullah Mojahed. "It was the Afghan police, who killed the innocent people of Kandahar, while their sense against the burning of the Holy Qur'an in Florida expressed were."
Condemnation of the UN Security Council for the Organization of the Islamic Conference generated the Mazari Sharif killings around the world, a 57-State group called the "collective voice of the Muslim world."
Jones in a statement Friday, called the attack "a very tragic and criminal action."
Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the police in Mazar-e Sharif, told reporters, a series of suspicious ", which may be the main organisers" were arrested by the attack Friday
The United Nations says that the seven UN staff killed four Nepalese security forces and three civilians. A UN source said, the three civilians from Norway, Sweden and Romania.
UN peacekeeping Director Alain Le Roy said also five protesters were killed. He said no Afghan UN staff among the dead were, he said.
"I understand there were hundreds if not, thousands of demonstrators." Some of them were clearly armed and they stormed into the building, said Le Roy.
He said the security guards tried their best to the protesters to halt advance, but were overwhelmed.
Le Roy said, it is not clear that the target was the United Nations. "It happened to the United Nations be, because the United Nations on the ground."
Another 24 people were injured, said Abdul Rauof Taj, Security Director of Balkh province.
The Security Council met Friday, and a declaration condemning the attack, in which United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan or UNAMA occurred the operations center of the.
Haji Sakhi Mohammad, a businessman in Mazar-e Sharif, said that the incident began after Friday prayers, appeared as many people as a protest against the burning of the Quran. People are calling for "Death to America" marched to the United Nations connection and broke in, he said. Gunfire broke out, and "I saw demonstrators to death shot," said he
A student in Mazar-e-Sharif, said he and his friends joined the demonstrators, who numbered in the hundreds. "When we reached the UNAMA Office, we came under shot by Afghan security forces." "Demonstrators became angry and stormed the building."
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari sentenced during a speech to Pakistan's legislature on 22 March burn the Quran.
He said "I, at the beginning, the people in Pakistan and on my own behalf the deliberate desecration of the Holy Quran to condemn by a fanatic in Florida," the speech, according to a transcript. "We condemn this Act in the strongest possible terms." ... "It is a serious setback for the efforts to promote harmony among civilised communities all over the world."CNN's contributed de Mati and Catherine E. Shoichet to this report
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