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 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."
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.
Quran burned
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 Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, condemned the desecration four days later.
