Two killed in fresh protests in Kandahar against Koran burning

Two people were killed and dozens more injured in a new wave of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of the Koran in the United States. One person died in what officials are calling an accidental explosion that ripped through a crowd of protestors in the southern city of Kandahar. 

Reuters/Stringer

An Interior Ministry spokesman said a gas bottle exploded in a traffic police booth set ablaze by protestors during the anti-US demonstrations in the city.

The violent protests began in Kandahar  and two adjoining districts of Panjwayi and Dand on a third day of violent demonstrations.

The protests, which started on Friday in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, have claimed the lives of at least 22 people including seven foreign UN staff. On Saturday, 10 people were killed and more than 80 injured in clashes with security forces in Kandahar.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeated his call to the White House, Senate and United Nations to bring to justice Terry Jones, the pastor who masterminded the burning of the Koran, Islam's Holy Book.