Quran burning could amount to another Abu Ghraib: Petraeus

WASHINGTON: The top US commander in Afghanistan warned Wednesday that a Florida Pastor’s plan to burn copies of the Quran could be as harmful to the US as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

General David Petraeus told NBC television that images of the Quran burning would be used by Islamic extremists to fuel anti-Americanism and harm the US mission in Afghanistan and other areas in the world.

‘We’re concerned that the images from the burning of a Quran would be used in the same way that extremists used images from Abu Ghraib that they would in a sense be indelible,’ Petraeus told NBC.

‘They would be used by those who wish us ill, to incite violence and to inflame public opinion against us and against our mission here in Afghanistan, as well as our missions undoubtedly around the world,’ he added.

Photos emerged in 2004 showing US soldiers