May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Newsweek said it may have erred in reporting that U.S. military investigators found evidence that interrogators desecrated the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center, an article that sparked anti-American demonstrations in Pakistan and Afghanistan that resulted in at least 15 deaths.

``We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst,'' Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in ``The Editor's Desk'' column published on Newsweek's Web site.

In its May 9 edition, the weekly newsmagazine cited an unnamed U.S. government official as saying an investigation of abuse allegations at the detention center found evidence that guards committed infractions in trying to get terror suspects to talk, including flushing a Koran down the toilet, Newsweek said.

Newsweek said Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita told the magazine its report was wrong and the investigation turned up no credible evidence of Koran desecration. Newsweek reported that the government official cited in the original story ``could no longer be sure'' such findings were included in the results of the investigation by the U.S. Southern Command.

Imran Khan, a critic of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, cited the Newsweek article in a press conference May 6 and accounts were picked up by newspapers and radio stations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, leading to the protests and violence, the magazine reported.

(Newsweek 5/15 online)

To contact the reporter for this story: Miles Weiss in Washington mweiss@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 15, 2005 18:04 EDT