A SOLDIER allegedly waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she failed to recite her ABCs.

Joshua Tabor, 27, flew into such a rage that he submerged her face about three or four times, Britain's Daily Mail reported.

He admitted to police that he chose the CIA torture technique because his daughter was terrified of water.

Mr Tabor, who is a soldier at a base in Tacoma, Washington, is said to have grabbed his daughter and submerged her face-up into a bowl of water.

Police said that they saw bruising on the girl's back and scratch marks on her throat, and when they asked her how she got them, she said: "Daddy did it."

Police arrested Mr Tabor after neighbours reported seeing him walking around the neighbourhood wearing his Kevlar helmet and threatening to break windows.

President Barack Obama has outlawed waterboarding but it was used frequently by the CIA on terror suspects while George W. Bush was in office.

Suspects would have water poured over their faces, giving them the sensation that they were drowning.

Mr Tabor has been charged with second degree assault. His daughter has been taken into care.