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Washington:
Five US soldiers took part in last week's apparently accidental burning of Qurans in Afghanistan, but they are unlikely to face public trial, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Citing US military officials, the Post said an investigation had established that the soldiers removed the Qurans from a prison at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after they were found to contain extremist messages.
The books were placed in an office for safekeeping, only to be mistaken for garbage and taken to a landfill where Afghan employees identified them as Qurans just as the pages caught fire, according to the investigation.
The military officials also said that while the five soldiers would face reprimand, it was unlikely their names would be released or that they would be put on public trial, the Post reported on its website.
"For the soldiers, it will be serious -- they could lose rank. But you're not going to see the kind of public trial that some here seem to want," one US military official was quoted as saying.
"What they did was careless, but there was no ill will," another added.
Afghanistan's top religious council, the Ulema Council, earlier on Friday demanded that those responsible for the burning of Qurans be put on public trial for "such a devilish act."
The Qurans had reportedly been seized from prisoners -- in what is known as Afghanistan's Guantanamo Bay -- who were suspected of using them to pass messages.
The incident triggered days of violent anti-US protests in which some 40 people died, plunging relations between foreign forces and their Afghan allies to an all-time low and leading US President Barack Obama to apologise.
Citing US military officials, the Post said an investigation had established that the soldiers removed the Qurans from a prison at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after they were found to contain extremist messages.
The books were placed in an office for safekeeping, only to be mistaken for garbage and taken to a landfill where Afghan employees identified them as Qurans just as the pages caught fire, according to the investigation.
The military officials also said that while the five soldiers would face reprimand, it was unlikely their names would be released or that they would be put on public trial, the Post reported on its website.
"For the soldiers, it will be serious -- they could lose rank. But you're not going to see the kind of public trial that some here seem to want," one US military official was quoted as saying.
"What they did was careless, but there was no ill will," another added.
Afghanistan's top religious council, the Ulema Council, earlier on Friday demanded that those responsible for the burning of Qurans be put on public trial for "such a devilish act."
The Qurans had reportedly been seized from prisoners -- in what is known as Afghanistan's Guantanamo Bay -- who were suspected of using them to pass messages.
The incident triggered days of violent anti-US protests in which some 40 people died, plunging relations between foreign forces and their Afghan allies to an all-time low and leading US President Barack Obama to apologise.
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