Saturday, June 4 2005 16:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The Pentagon released new details about mishandling of the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and an interrogator who stepped on a Quran was fired later for "a pattern of unacceptable behaviour."

In other confirmed incidents, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet, a guard's urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Quran and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.

The findings, released after normal business hours last evening (Jun 3, 2005), are among results of an investigation last month by Brig Gen Jay Hood, commander of the detention center in Cuba.

The probe was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report, later retracted, that a US soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee's Quran down a toilet.

The story stirred worldwide controversy, and the Bush administration blamed it for deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan.

Hood said in a written statement, released yesterday with the new details, that his investigation "revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Quran dating back almost 2 1/2 years."

Hood said of nine mishandling cases that were studied in detail in a review of thousands of pages of written records, five were confirmed to have happened. He could not determine conclusively whether the four others took place.