Angry protests over the burning of a Koran by a Florida pastor, Terry Jones began in the relatively peaceful northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Seven members of the UN mission to the war-torn nation were killed when the protesters attacked the world body’s office. A Norwegian, a Swede, a Romanian and four Nepalese guards were among the dead.

Five Afghan protesters were also killed in clashes with police.

A dozen other people were killed in two days of violent protests in the southern city of Kandahar.

UN Office Attacked

Karzai on Sunday “issued two separate decrees and assigned two committees for Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif,” his spokesman Waheed Omer said, responding to a question from a journalist about police failure to prevent UN casualties.

“They are tasked to investigate the factors which turned the demonstrations to violence, and what caused the failure of police that could not prevent this,” Omer told reporters, giving no further details.

The Kandahar provincial administration said that a delegation appointed by Karzai to investigate deadly unrest in the city began work on Monday.