US military apologises for discriminatory language in manual

The US military has apologised for including discriminatory language in a manual offered to troops deployed in Saudi Arabia.

The June 2018 guide, designed to inform newly deployed troops about the Kingdom's culture and customs, said in one paragraph a "mixture of N***o blood from slaves imported from Africa" can be found in some of the Kingdom's population.

Bill Urban, a spokesman of the Central Command, said in a statement on Thursday that "we regret that inappropriate material was posted to our website without a more fulsome review and apologise to anyone who took offence".

"We removed the document as soon as we were notified of the content, and it was returned to the originating office for revision," Urban said.

The Central Command will review other training material for inappropriate content, he said.

The offensive wording was brought to light by comedian Hasan Minhaj, who joked on his show that "Oh America, even in boring, technical manuals you somehow manage to be racist."

The US Central Command is a Unified Combatant Command headquartered in Florida.

Its Area of Responsibility includes parts of North Africa and Central Asia, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq.

--IANS

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