US soldier removed from Iraq for shooting at Quran
By KIM GAMEL
BAGHDAD (AP) — An American sniper was removed from Iraq after he used a
copy of the Quran for
target practice, the military said Sunday, a day after a U.S. commander
held a formal ceremony
apologizing to Sunni tribal leaders.
The elaborate ceremony — in which one U.S. officer kissed a new copy of
Islam's holy book
before giving it to the tribal leaders — reflected the military's
eagerness to stave off anger
among Sunni Arabs it has been cultivating as allies.
The tribesmen have become key in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq
militants, who depict the
American forces as anti-Islamic occupiers. One anti-U.S. Iraqi Sunni group
condemned the Quran
shooting, calling it "a hideous act." Similar perceived insults to Islam
have triggered
protests throughout the Muslim world.
Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled Quran with graffiti inside the cover
on a firing range
near a police station in Radwaniyah, a former insurgent stronghold west of
Baghdad, U.S.
military spokesman Col. Bill Buckner said.
American commanders launched an inquiry that led to disciplinary action
against the
unidentified soldier, who has been removed from Iraq, Buckner said.
Members of the local U.S.-allied group said the Quran was found with 14
bullet holes in a field
after U.S. troops withdrew from a base in the area.
Sheik Ahmed Khudayer al-Janabi, a local tribal leader, said the group had
planned a protest
march last Thursday but called it off under pressure from U.S. forces and
to prevent any
insurgent violence as retaliation.
The incident, which occurred on May 9 and was discovered two days later,
was first re****ted by
CNN, which broadcast a ceremony at which the top American commander in
Baghdad apologized to
tribal leaders Saturday in Radwaniyah. The military confirmed the details
Sunday in an e-mailed
response to a query.
"I come before you here seeking your forgiveness," Maj. Gen. Jeffery
Hammond was quoted as
saying at the ceremony. "In the most humble manner I look in your eyes
today and I say please
forgive me and my soldiers."
"The actions of one soldier were nothing more than criminal behavior," he
added. "I've come to
this land to protect you, to sup****t you — not to harm you — and the
behavior of this soldier
was nothing short of wrong and unacceptable."
The commander also read a letter of apology by the shooter, who has not
been identified, while
another military official kissed a Quran and presented it to the tribal
leaders, according to CNN.
Tribal leaders, dignitaries and local security officials attended the
ceremony, while
protesters carried banners and chanted slogans, including "Yes, yes to the
Quran" and "America
out, out."
The military statement called the incident "serious and deeply troubling"
but stressed it was
the result of one soldier's actions and "not representative of the
professionalism of our
soldiers or the respect they have for all faiths."
The hard-line Association of Muslim Scholars condemned the shooting and
what it said was a
belated acknowledgment of the incident, calling it "a hideous act against
the book of almighty
God and the constitution of the nation and the source of its glory and
dignity."
The alliances between Sunni tribes and U.S. forces have been key to a
steep decline in violence
over the past year. But the Quran incident was the latest in a series of
setbacks, including
the accidental killings of U.S.-allied fighters, that have raised concerns
about the fragility
of the sup****t for the American forces.
U.S. troops also have struggled to overcome the perception that they are
insensitive to Islamic
traditions after several missteps in the early stages of the war in Iraq.
Sheik Eid Majid al-Zubaie, the preacher at the Radwaniyah mosque, said
local leaders were
outraged over the discovery of the Quran, which he said was shot through
and had big dark X's
and other graffiti on the pages. But he said they had accepted the
military's apology.
"There is not any difference between this soldier and the figure in
Denmark who made the
caricature drawings against the Prophet Muhammad," al-Zubaie said. "But
they apologized and
expelled the soldier."
Separately, relatives mourned the deaths of at least five children killed
when mortar shells
slammed into a neighborhood while they were playing outside in a
predominantly ****ite area on
the eastern outskirts of Baghdad on Saturday.
Bandaged girls and boys with bloodstained clothes cried as they were
packed two to a bed at the
hospital to which they were taken in the ****ite stronghold of Sadr City.
Mortar rounds struck a house, an open area and a street where boys were
playing soccer in the
Maamil neighborhood on Baghdad's northeastern outskirts, witnesses said.
Nadim Jabir, 33, said he lost his 4-year-old son Abbas, and that his wife
and 10-year-old
daughter were wounded when their mud-brick house was hit.
"My wife was panicked and ran out with my three children," he said, adding
he ran after them
but was thrown to the ground by the force of another blast.
"When the dust settled, I saw my only boy Abbas lying on the ground with
many other kids. All
were groaning and some kids were missing limbs. Abbas was hit in his
head," he said.
Residents said four other children were killed. Police and hospital
officials also re****ted a
man was killed and at least 30 people were wounded.
The mortar strikes occurred as s****adic fighting continues between ****ite
militiamen and
U.S.-Iraqi forces despite a peace deal reached with followers of radical
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
last week.
An American soldier also was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb that hit his
vehicle north of
Baghdad, raising to at least 4,080 the number of U.S. service members who
have died since the
Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Associated Press writer Bushra Juhi contributed to this re****t.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
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