U.S. Moves To Avert Crisis After Soldier Shoots Koran
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — American commanders moved swiftly to avert a crisis after a soldier deployed in Baghdad was found to have used a copy of the Koran for target practice.
The incident had the potential to inflame Muslim opinion against the American military and compromise the delicate alliance it has been forging with Sunni Arab communities against religious extremists. Local leaders accepted an apology from senior American commanders, and the military said yesterday that the soldier responsible had been disciplined and pulled from Iraq.
A spokesman for the American military, Colonel Bill Buckner, described the incident as “serious and deeply troubling” but emphasized that it was an isolated case.
Community leaders were outraged and threatened to stop helping the American military fight the Sunni Arab militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq, a tribal leader and member of the country’s largest Sunni political party, Ayad Jabouri, said. The American command ordered an immediate investigation.
