US quick to condemn ‘reprehensible’ photos of troops with Afghan corpses

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US military and civilian leaders have attempted to douse the latest scandal involving US troops in Afghanistan by swiftly condemning photographs which showed paratroopers grinning and posing with insurgents’ mangled corpses.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday demanded an investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “The conduct depicted in those photos is reprehensible.”

As part of a wide-ranging damage limitation exercise, US defence secretary Leon Panetta made several apologies. “This is war, and I know war is ugly, and is violent. And I know young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions,” he told a news conference during a Nato meeting in Brussels. “I am not excusing that. My apology is on behalf of the department of defence and the US government … Again, that behaviour is unacceptable.”

The strongly-worded and co-ordinated responses, echoed througout the day by other officials, began even before the Los Angeles Times broke the story early on Wednesday and reflected official sensitivity in the wake of other cases of misconduct in Afghanistan.

The paper published two photographs of members of the 82nd Airborne division stationed in Zabol province. In one, dated February 2010, they posed with what the LA Times described as the severed legs of a suicide bomber. Afghans, including at least two men in police uniform, were also in the shot.

A second picture, apparently taken several months later, showed a grinning soldier in front of the corpse of an insurgent, one of three who Afghans accidentally blew themselves up, the paper said. The dead man’s hand rested on his shoulder while a second soldier in the background appeared to manipulate the body. The paper said the pictures were a selection from 18 handed to the organisation by a soldier who served in Afghanistan with the division.

It described but did not show an image of two soldiers holding a dead man’s hand with the middle finger raised. Another image showed an unofficial platoon patch reading “Zombie Hunter” placed beside other remains.

The LA Times ignored a Pentagon request to not publish the photographs on the grounds they could be used by Taliban propaganda to incite attacks on US targets.

In a statement, the Times editor, Davan Maharaj, said: “After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering US troops.”

The paper said the soldier who supplied the photographs – on condition of anonymity – cited them as evidence that failures of leadership and discipline were risking troops’ safety.

The top commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, promised an investigation into the images, saying the behaviour shown “represents a serious error in judgment by several soldiers who have acted out of ignorance and unfamiliarity with US army values.”

The scandal followed a spate of revelations about US atrocities and misconduct in Afghanistan. In January marines were found to have filmed themselves urinating on Afghan corpses. In February, the burning of Qur’ans at a US base triggered deadly riots. Last month, a staff sergeant allegedly killed 17 civilians, mainly women and children.

Ryan Crocker, the US amabassador in Kabul, said the behaviour depicted in the photographs were morally repugnant and dishonoured the sacrifices of all those who served with distinction in Afghanistan.

Amid the chorus of apology, however, officials made several swipes at the LA Times, accusing the paper of risking retaliation against US targets in Afghanistan. “Neither do I want these images to bring further injury to our people, or our relationship with the Afghan people. Those kinds of photos are used by (the) enemy to incite violence, and lives have been lost as a result,” said Panetta.

Wesley Clark, a retired general and former Democratic presidential hopeful, told CNN that the newspaper would have to “live with the consequences” of deciding to publish. “I hope our troops will be OK.”

An LA Times spokesperson told the Guardian that for now the paper had nothing more to add to the editor’s statment.

Among Afghans in Kabul there was condemnation of the photographs for breaking moral codes, and concern they could be used for insurgent recruiting, but little sense of the personal outrage following the Qur’an burnings and intentional killing of civilians.

“Making jokes with a dead body, whether he is an enemy or not, is against the culture of Afghanistan and sharia law,” said Ahmad Shah Behzad, a member of parliament from western Herat province. “It doesn’t matter who is doing that, Afghan or international. They have mental problems – perhaps because they have been at war, and are filled with anger. It has no benefits for them but of course it has benefits for the terrorist groups.”

There is widespread disgust among Afghans for suicide bombing, a recently imported tactic considered by many to be un-Islamic, and carried out by foreign jihadis rather than fellow Afghans.

“Dishonouring the body of a Pakistani suicide attacker is not a problem for Afghans,” said Rahimullah Abdulzada, a midde-aged shopkeeper in Kabul’s Taimani district, although he hastened to add that he was not speaking from a religious perspective.

“This is not the point of view of Islam, it is my point of view: why are they coming to Afghanistan to kill themselves and kill our people and destroy our homes and families? The Pakistanis have been interfering in our country for decades.”

Defence secretary Leon Panetta issued a strongly-worded condemnation of the photos and said: ‘That behaviour is unacceptable.’ Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images