The US Army has apologised for graphic photographs of US soldiers grinning over the corpses of Afghan civilians they had allegedly killed.
The photos published by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine were said to be among many seized by US Army investigators.
An army statement said the photographs were "repugnant" but were already being used as evidence in a court martial.
Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces is a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan.
These photographs are purported to have been taken by a "rogue" US Army unit in Afghanistan in 2010.
Such images are only going to exacerbate tensions between the Afghan government and the people on the one hand and the US-led coalition on the other, says the BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul.
US court martial
It is unclear exactly when the photographs published were taken but Der Spiegel says they are among 4,000 pictures and pieces of video they have obtained.
Some of the images show two soldiers kneeling over a body. They each hold the face of the dead man up to the camera by grabbing his hair and turning his head. One of the American soldiers is grinning.
The US Army said these photographs depict "actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army".
"The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing US court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," it added.
Soldiers who are convicted will be held accountable as appropriate, the army says.
Cpl Morlock has now agreed to plead guilty
Der Spiegel magazine says it has identified one of the soldiers in the photographs as Cpl Jeremy Morlock. He is one of five soldiers accused of the premeditated murder of three Afghan civilians earlier this year.
Cpl Morlock agreed to plead guilty in late February and get a shorter prison term if he testified against the other accused soldiers.
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I haven't managed to find the whole library of these of photos but just these few in Der Spiegal.
Be warned they are not very nice.
The photos published by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine were said to be among many seized by US Army investigators.
An army statement said the photographs were "repugnant" but were already being used as evidence in a court martial.
Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces is a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan.
These photographs are purported to have been taken by a "rogue" US Army unit in Afghanistan in 2010.
Such images are only going to exacerbate tensions between the Afghan government and the people on the one hand and the US-led coalition on the other, says the BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul.
US court martial
It is unclear exactly when the photographs published were taken but Der Spiegel says they are among 4,000 pictures and pieces of video they have obtained.
Some of the images show two soldiers kneeling over a body. They each hold the face of the dead man up to the camera by grabbing his hair and turning his head. One of the American soldiers is grinning.
The US Army said these photographs depict "actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army".
"The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing US court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," it added.
Soldiers who are convicted will be held accountable as appropriate, the army says.
Cpl Morlock has now agreed to plead guilty
Der Spiegel magazine says it has identified one of the soldiers in the photographs as Cpl Jeremy Morlock. He is one of five soldiers accused of the premeditated murder of three Afghan civilians earlier this year.
Cpl Morlock agreed to plead guilty in late February and get a shorter prison term if he testified against the other accused soldiers.
source
---------------------------------------------------
I haven't managed to find the whole library of these of photos but just these few in Der Spiegal.
Be warned they are not very nice.
