Five soldiers blamed in burning of Qurans

WASHINGTON – A U.S. military investigation into the burning of Muslim holy books in a trash pit in Afghanistan last month found that several enlisted soldiers had misinterpreted an order to dispose of the books, two officials familiar with the findings said Friday.

The investigation found that five U.S. soldiers were responsible for confiscating the Qurans and other religious materials from a U.S.-run detention facility near Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, and dumping them in a pit used to incinerate trash.

News of the incident sparked targeted attacks that killed six Americans and violent riots that left more than 30 people dead. Hundreds of Western military and civilian advisers working at Afghan government offices were withdrawn by embassies and NATO commanders as the crisis mounted.

U.S. officials said several of the soldiers, who have not been publicly identified, are likely to face disciplinary proceedings. They said Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has not made a decision on punishments.

Allen was briefed on the investigation late this week, the officials said.

The riots and violence appear spent for now. Friday prayers, the most important religious event of the Muslim week, passed without more protests breaking out.

The military investigation largely supports official U.S. claims that the burnings were inadvertent.

The officials said soldiers had confiscated religious materials because they believed the books were being used to pass written messages among prisoners. The books circulated from prisoner to prisoner as part of the prison’s lending library.

The books were initially put in a storage area, but they were removed a few days later after enlisted soldiers were told to dispose of them. They were not told to burn the books, although it’s unclear how they were supposed to dispose of Muslim texts.

“There were crossed wires,” said one official familiar with the investigation. “There’s no indication this was a deliberate attempt to defile religious materials.”

Afghan workers at the burn pit spotted several Qurans in the flames and “started getting riled up” over the desecration of holy books, another official said. The workers pulled several charred books from the fire and told other Afghans, igniting widespread outrage.