OTTAWA — A military investigation two years in the making has cleared Canadian soldiers of any wrongdoing in the handling of captured Taliban fighters in Kandahar.

A board of inquiry report into allegations that troops mistreat and beat prisoners taken during heavy fighting in April 2006 found, instead, they were treated `professionally and humanely.'

Defence Minister Peter MacKay presented the findings to the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Vice-Admiral Jean Rouleau, the vice chief of defence staff, says the inquiry looked at whether the use of force to restrain the prisoners was appropriate and if medical care administered to them was adequate.

The investigation was opened in February 2007 after Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa law professor and human rights advocate, uncovered through military police records what he called a suspicious and unexplained pattern of injuries among Afghan prisoners.

The Forces then ordered both a criminal investigation by military police and an internal inquiry.