KABUL - Afghans will never accept US justice for five American soldiers involved in burning copies of the Qur'an, and could rise up in a "storm of fury" if there is no public trial, a senior cleric said on Saturday. The burning of Qur'an at a NATO air base has incensed the Muslim nation and sparked protests, complicating efforts by the US to forge a long-term security pact with Afghanistan ahead of an end-2014 foreign combat troop pullout. "The military leaders who ordered the burning and the offenders should both be tried and punished ... This evil crime has been done inside Afghanistan so the punishment must be according to the country's law," Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, head of an Afghan group comprising clerics and parliamentarians investigating the incident, told reporters. "Court martial or any punishment within the circle of US military law will never be accepted ... If our demands are disregarded then a storm of fury will rise and wash away the Americans." Protests and condemnation erupted last month after Afghan workers found charred copies of the Qur'an at the Bagram base near Kabul. There are three on-going inquiries into the event. A joint investigation, conducted by US military officials and members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, has concluded that five US soldiers were involved, officials said on condition of anonymity on Friday. US President Barack Obama and other US officials have apologised over the burnings.
