The main body of Afghan Muslim clerics called on the United States yesterday to apologize and punish those responsible for desecrating the Qur'an at its Guantanamo Bay prison, an issue that sparked bloody riots in Afghanistan. The US military released details this month about five cases in which the holy book was kicked, stepped on, soaked in water, and in one instance, splashed with a guard's urine falling through an air vent at the military prison in Cuba.America's top general, Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the military is unlikely to hold court-martial proceedings in the two or three cases of deliberate mishandling of the Qur'an at Guantanamo Bay. Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, head of the influential national clerics' body, the Ulema Council, said it had passed a two-point resolution on the issue yesterday. "The Ulema Council resolved that the United States and those who have done this should apologize to the whole Muslim community, and the ones who have done this should be punished so that others don't do this again," he told Reuters.