Check out CNN.com's Afghanistan Crossroads blog for the latest developments, and the Belief Blog for a timeline of Terry Jones. 
 
 Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The deadly protests in northern Afghanistan over a Quran burning spread to the country's war-torn southern region on Saturday, with provincial government officials reporting at least nine civilians dead and dozens injured. 
 
 The violence struck the city of Kandahar when demonstrators took to the streets to protest the torching of Islam's most sacred book by a U.S. church. 
 
 The unrest followed a demonstration on Friday in the northern town of Mazar-e Sharif, in which five demonstrators and seven U.N. employees were killed when an angry throng stormed the U.N. compound there. 
 
 U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday extended condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in Mazar-e Sharif, but also decried the burning of the Quran. 
 
 "The desecration of any holy text ... is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," he said in a statement released by the White House. "However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity." 
 
 Besmellah Afghanmal, a Kandahar provincial council member, said hundreds gathered in Kandahar city to protest the Quran burning. 
 
 "Today the enemies of peace in Afghanistan killed and injured our people in Kandahar," said a statement from the office of the Kandahar governor. 
 
 The demonstration started peacefully, but protesters turned violent, setting fire to a school and vehicles in Kandahar city, said Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province. 
 
 Along with the nine deaths, 73 others were injured, the provincial government said. 
 
 Ayoubi said Afghan security forces arrested 17 people, including seven who were armed and are suspected of shooting at protesters. 
 
 Pastor Terry Jones sparked international controversy last year when his Gainesville, Florida, church planned "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 
 
 Jones' church did not host a Quran burning on that day, but the Dove World Outreach Center's website announced an "International Judge the Koran Day" set for last month. 
 
 Another post on the site's blog showed an image of a burning book and read, "The event is over, the Koran was found guilty and a copy was burned inside the building." 
 
 Some witnesses in Kandahar said protesters were shot by police. 
 
 "I saw personally three people who (were) shot to death, and one of them was shot just next to me," protester Shah Meer said. 
 
 But police said they neither shot at nor killed anyone. 
 
 "There (was) gunfire into the air in order to bring the people under control, and luckily not one has been killed as a result of the gunfire," said Zemarai Bashari, spokesman for the interior ministry. 
 
 Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Taliban said the group was not behind any deaths during the event. 
 
 "What happened in Kandahar today was the feeling of the nation, and the Islamic movement of the Taliban was not involved in any (violence)," Zabiullah Mojahed said. "It was the Afghan police that killed the innocent people of Kandahar while they were expressing their feeling against the burning of holy Quran in Florida." 
 
 The Mazar-e Sharif killings generated worldwide condemnation, from the U.N. Security Council to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-state group that calls itself the "collective voice of the Muslim world." 
 
 Jones in a statement Friday called the assault "a very tragic and criminal action." 
 
 Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the police in Mazar-e Sharif, told reporters that a number of suspects "who might be the main organizers" had been arrested from the Friday attack 
 
 The United Nations says the seven U.N. staffers killed were four Nepalese security guards and three civilians. A U.N. source said the three civilians were from Norway, Sweden and Romania. 
 
 U.N. Peacekeeping Director Alain Le Roy said five demonstrators also were killed. He said no Afghan U.N. staff members were among the dead, he said. 
 
 "I understand there were hundreds, if not thousands, of demonstrators. Some of them were clearly armed and they stormed into the building," Le Roy said. 
 
 He said the security guards tried their best to halt the demonstrators' advance, but were overwhelmed. 
 
 Le Roy said it was not clear that the United Nations was the target. "It happened to be the U.N. because the U.N. is on the ground." 
 
 Another 24 people were wounded, said Abdul Rauof Taj, security director of Balkh province. 
 
 The U.N. Security Council met Friday and issued a statement condemning the attack, which occurred at the operations center of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA. 
 
 Haji Sakhi Mohammad, a businessman in Mazar-e Sharif, said the incident began after Friday prayers, when many people joined a protest against the burning of the Quran. People calling "Death to America" marched to the U.N. compound and broke in, he said. Gunfire broke out, and "I saw protesters shot to death," he said 
 
 A student in Mazar-e-Sharif said he and his friends joined the protesters, who numbered in the hundreds. "When we reached the UNAMA office, we came under gunfire by Afghan security guards. Protesters became angry and stormed the building." 
 
 Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the Quran burning during a speech before Pakistan's legislature on March 22. 
 
 "May I, at the outset, strongly condemn on behalf of the people of Pakistan and on my own behalf the deliberate desecration of the holy Quran by a fanatic in Florida," he said, according to a transcript of speech. "We condemn this act in the strongest possible words. ... It is a serious setback to the efforts at promoting harmony among civilized communities throughout the world." 
 
 CNN's Matiullah Mati and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report ||||| Eight people killed in Kandahar as thousands protest against a US pastor's burning of the Quran last month. 
 
 Eight people have been killed in Afghanistan as protests continue against the burning of the Quran by a controversial US pastor. Thousands of people took to the streets in Kandahar city on Saturday, a day after a deadly attack on UN staff. Protesters attacked the police and set shops ablaze. About 70 people were injured. Abdul Qayoum Pukhla, a senior doctor at Kandahar's Mirwais hospital, said victims suffering from bullet injuries and wounds caused by rocks had been admitted to the hospital. The spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province said the protest was organised by the Taliban who used the Quran burning in Florida as an excuse to incite violence. "The demonstration in Kandahar was planned by insurgents to take advantage of the situation and to create insecurity," Zalmay Ayoubi said. UN office attacked A day earlier, after Friday prayers ended, protesters overwhelmed security guards at the UN office in the usually peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. They burned parts of the compound and climbed blast walls to topple a guard tower. Afghan officials said at least 11 people were killed, including seven UN staff. The throat of one of the dead foreigners was slit, the UN said. Demonstrators had gathered to protest over reports that an evangelical pastor last month burned a copy of the Muslim holy book in the US. 
 
 The pastor's "Judge the Quran day" drew widespread international condemnation The Taliban said they had no role in Friday's assault on the UN office, after both the provincial governor and a senior UN 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 told the Reuters news agency. "The foreigners brought the wrath of the Afghans on themselves by burning the Quran." President Karzai spoke with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday morning to convey his grief over the attack on the UN. Karzai described the attack as "ruthless" and affirmed that the government of Afghanistan is committed to launching an all-out probe into the incident and bringing to justice those responsible. Stressing the importance of promoting a peaceful co-existence and harmony among the religions, Karzai asked Ban to play his role in raising public awareness on the significance of resorting to non-violence and non-desecration of faith and dialogue among religions. Kabul attack Also on Saturday, fighters clad in burkas attacked a coalition base in Kabul with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but were killed either when they detonated their explosives or by Afghan or coalition fire outside the entrance, NATO and police said. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Kabul, said the Taliban had claimed responsibility for that attack. "They're saying the Americans, the Europeans and the United Nations have to take a very tough stance when it comes to the desecration of Islamic symbols and they haven't seen that, they haven't seen any statement issued by the UN or the American forces in Afghanistan," he said. "This is why they're trying to converge in the main cities, in particular in areas where there are military bases and UN offices, to send a very strong signal that they are really angry about what's going on." Terry Jones, an American pastor, created a storm of controversy after he announced that he would burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year. Under pressure from political leaders, Jones "suspended" the event. However, on March 20, Jones oversaw the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book by another pastor, Wayne Sapp. Many Afghans only found out about it when Karzai condemned the desecration four days later. Sapp called the deaths in Mazar-i-Sharif "tragic," but said he did not regret the actions of his church. "I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened," he said. Protests also broke out on Friday in Kabul and Herat in western Afghanistan. ||||| The Pentagon is appealing to Florida pastor Terry Jones against repeating last year's burning of the Qur'an and images of Muhammad that led to widespread rioting and deaths round the world. 
 
 US officials are monitoring the situation and the military is fearful for the lives of American soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere if Jones goes ahead with his plan, announced on his website, to set fire to the Qur'an next week. 
 
 Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida and self-appointed scourge of Islam, has set a deadline of 5pm on Saturday April 28 for his demands to be met for the release of a Christian religious leader in Iran. 
 
 If the Iranian cleric Youcef Nadarkhani is still imprisoned, Jones says he will set fire to a Qur'an and multiple images of Muhammad. 
 
 The threat from Jones comes on top of a row over the publication this week by the Los Angeles Times of pictures showing US troops with dismembered bodies in Afghanistan in 2010 and the apparently accidental burning of Qur'ans and Islamic religious documents by US troops at Bagram airport in Afghanistan in February that left 41 dead and more than 200 injured. 
 
 The last time Jones organised such a spectacle was on March 20 last year when he burned a Qur'an dressed in a judicial robe in the grounds of his church. The act prompted attacks on a UN compound in Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan in which seven UN employees died, and there were other fatal protests around the region. 
 
 Asked by the Guardian whether the cost in terms of lives lost of his previous escapade did not make him pause, Jones said that the impact of his Qur'an burning was not his responsibility. "What happened last time and what could happen this time is not our responsibility. All we did was burn a book. It posed no threat to anyone else, yet riots broke out several thousand miles away – which just proves how extreme Islam is." 
 
 However, Jones said that the loss of made it more difficult to repeat the exercise. "That's why we have been in contact on a daily basis with the Iranian embassy and religious leaders to see if we could get some dialogue going given the severity of what could happen." 
 
 Commander Bill Speaks, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Guardian: "We are aware of Pastor Terry Jones' threat to burn a Qur'an, and are monitoring the situation. The last time Pastor Jones burned a Qur'an, back in March of 2011, more than 16 people died and more than 90 people were injured from the resulting protests. We hope Pastor Jones will take into account the safety and welfare of deployed US military personnel before engaging in such an activity again." 
 
 In the run-up to his March 2011 burning, there were numerous interventions of senior US officials, right up to Barack Obama, secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the then defence secretary, Robert Gates, who phoned Jones in person. So far this time, Jones said, he has yet to be contacted by any official figure. 
 
 This year has already been disastrous for relations between Afghans and US forces, and there are certain to be protests if Jones does burn the Qur'an, although authorities will be alert to possible violence after deadly demonstrations in February. 
 
 Afghans took to the streets over the burning of copies of the Qur'an by US troops at a major US airbase. Around 30 Afghans died, and during a week of rioting six US troops were also killed by Afghan forces they served with. 
 
 Afghanistan is a conservative and deeply religious country, where outrage at desecration of Islam's holy book transcends boundaries of ideology, wealth and education, and there is little understanding of the legal constraints on authorities in America. 
 
 Afghans want the American government to prevent Jones from going ahead. 
 
 Sayed Hussani Balkhi, a Kabul member of parliament, said: "Burning the holy book is a big sin. This action has to be condemned by the international community. If this person doesn't stop and he burns the holy book again, then the patience of the Afghan people will end, so the result of that will be the ordinary people will join with the Taliban. 
 
 "And if the American people don't stop this person, then the people of Afghanistan will stand on their own feet against them." 
 
 Maulavi Mohammad Qalamuddin, deputy head of the virtue and vice ministry under the Taliban regime, said: "This person who is planning to burn the holy book in Florida is an ignorant person. He is crazy, like an animal. This man is going to make the Muslim people of Afghanistan emotional … It is the job of the American government to stop him and capture him." 
 
 There are also fears that if Jones does go ahead, his behaviour could be used as insurgent propaganda. 
 
 "Islam doesn't allow us to dishonour the Christian holy book, so it is the job of Christians to respect the holy Qur'an as well," said Jamshed Hashimi, a 45-year-old teacher at one of the private universities of Kabul. "It is the job of the Americans to stop this person, otherwise the militants, the insurgents will use this opportunity and the people will help them." 
 
 The Nato-led coaltion in Afghanistan referred comments to the US, and the office of President Hamid Karzai could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 • This article was amended on 23 April 2012 to correct misspellings of Qur'an.
– Pastor Terry Jones' Koran-burning stunt continues to reverberate across the world. At least eight people were killed in a riot in Kandahar today while protesting Jones' actions last month, reports al-Jazeera and CNN. The unrest follows the death of a dozen people yesterday, including seven UN workers, during a riot in the normally peaceful northern town of Mazar-e Sharif. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Kandahar, clashed with police, and set fire to shops. About 70 were injured. Afghan officials say the Taliban infiltrated otherwise peaceful protests in both cities to incite violence, but the group denies it, notes Reuters. "The Taliban had nothing to do with this, it was a pure act of responsible Muslims," said a spokesman. "The foreigners brought the wrath of the Afghans on themselves by burning the Koran."