BEIJING, June 4 -- A military inquiry has released further details about the mishandling of the Muslim holy book -- Koran -- at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that guards or interrogators deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book, the Pentagon said on Friday.    

    

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

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

    Last week, the head of the investigation, Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, commander of the Guant¨¢namo Joint Task Force, announced at the Pentagon that his preliminary findings had uncovered five cases in which the Koran was mishandled at the prison, but he refused to provide details.

    Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba, said in a written statement released Friday evening, along with the new details, that his investigation "revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Koran dating back almost 2 1/2 years."

    "Mishandling a Koran at Guant¨¢namo Bay is a rare occurrence," he said. "Mishandling of a Koran here is never condoned."

    A Newsweek story in its issue dated May 9 reported that American military investigators had found evidence that interrogators at the Guantanamo prison facility had flushed a Koran down a toilet to get inmates there to talk.

    The article, which was retracted by the magazine one week later, sparked violent protests in Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, Pakistan and other Muslim countries.

    About 520 prisoners, most of whom were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan, are still being held at Guantanamo Bay, and some of them have been detained there for more than three years without charges and access to lawyers. Enditem

    (Agencies)