Iraqi Sunni party demands tough action against U.S. soldier shooting Quran

By Xinhua,

Baghdad : A key Iraqi Sunni party demanded Monday the U.S. military to take a tough action against its soldier who used a copy of holy Quran as a target practice, saying apology is not “enough.”


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The Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, said in a statement that it “demands the U.S. administration to deal firmly with this desecration to make the soldier an example for others in the future.”

The party also demanded the Iraqi government to take an appropriate position toward the “humiliation of Muslims by this heinous crime,” said the statement obtained by Xinhua.

“Such offenses have occurred frequently during the past few years and apology is no more enough and the U.S. military has to take stronger measures to honor values of Muslims,” stressed the statement.

Earlier, the U.S. military apologized to the local community leaders in Radwaniyah, a mostly Sunni district on Baghdad’s southwestern outskirts.

A U.S. military spokesman viewed the incident as both “serious and deeply troubling,” but stressed that it was an “isolated incident and a result of one soldier’s action.”

U.S. commanders have undertaken disciplinary action against the soldier who was involved, and he has been removed from Iraq to the United States, the spokesman said, without releasing the name of the shooter or how he would be disciplined.

On May 11, the Iraqi police found the desecrated copy of the Islamic holy book at a small shooting range near a police station in Radwaniyah. The volume was riddled with bullets and had graffiti inside the cover.

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