US Bush apologizes over Quran shooting in Iraq

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-20 19:41

BAGHDAD -- US President George W. Bush has apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki over the shooting of the holy Quran by an American soldier, Iraqi official television reported on Tuesday.

"The prime minister received an apology from US President George W. Bush on the incident of shooting of a Quran by a US soldier," the state-run television al-Iraqia said.

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.

Later, the US military apologized to the local community leaders in Radwaniyah, a mostly Sunni district on Baghdad's southwestern outskirts.

A US 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."

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

On Monday, the Iraqi Islamic Party, headed by Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, said apology by US commanders in Iraq is not enough.

"Such offences have occurred frequently during the past few years and apology is no more enough and the US military has to take stronger measures to honor values of Muslims," the party said in a statement.