Arab OnLine

19/05/2008 01:00:27 PM (GMT)

A major Sunni party, finally "demanded" tough government action against a US soldier who fired bullets into the Koran.

The desecration was also strongly condemned by the Association of Muslim Scholars, which claims to represent more than 3,000 mosques, and which held both the US military and Iraq government responsible.

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's party said the Iraq Islamic Party demands that the US administration deals firmly with this desecration.

There was no immediate reaction from the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki but the American army staff sergeant, who pumped bullets into the Koran and wrote graffiti inside it, has already been removed from Iraq.

US military authorities in Iraq have apologised to the local community for the deed.

Major General Jeffrey Hammond, the top commander of US forces in Baghdad, met community leaders from Radhwaniya in the capital's western outskirts and offered an apology.

US military spokesman Colonel Bill Buckner said the military viewed the incident "as both serious and deeply troubling," but stressed it was an "isolated incident and a result of one soldier's actions".

In this context, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq said in a statement this heinous crime shows the hatred that the leaders and the members of the occupying force have against the Koran and the (Muslim) people.