US troops pose with body parts of Afghan insurgents in new photos
US troops pose with body parts of Afghan insurgents in new photos
Top Nato and US officials condemn photographs released to the LA Times by soldier as tense relations with Afghanistan worsen
Already tense US and Nato ties with Afghanistan were dealt another blow with photographs appearing in an American newspaper of US soldiers posing with the maimed bodies of dead Afghan insurgents.
Senior US officials and Nato's top commander in the country, US general John Allen, moved quickly to condemn the pictures even before they were published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday after receiving the photos from another soldier.
"The actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies of International Security Assistance Force or the US army," Allen said in a statement, adding an investigation into the incident was underway.
The appearance on the LA Times website of some of the 18 pictures, taken in 2010, comes at a sensitive time in US-Afghan relations, following release of a video in January that showed four US marines urinating on Afghan insurgent corpses.
The inadvertent burning of copies of the Qur'an at a major Nato airbase also triggered a week of riots that left 30 dead and led to the deaths of six Americans.
And, in March, a US army sergeant went on a night-time shooting rampage in two southern Afghan villages, killing 17 civilians and prompting the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to demand foreign soldiers confine themselves to major bases.
Taliban insurgents launched suicide attacks in Kabul and three other provinces at the weekend, claiming the assault was launched in retaliation for all three incidents.
In one of the pictures a paratrooper posed next to an unofficial patch placed beside a body that read "Zombie Hunter", while in another soldiers posed with Afghan police holding the severed legs of an insurgent bombers.
Two soldiers in another frame held a dead insurgent's hand with the middle finger raised.
The LA Times said the 82nd Airborne Division soldiers had been at a police station in Afghanistan's Zabol province in February 2010, and revisited several months later. The pictures were taken on both occasions.
The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said in a statement released by departmental spokesman George Little that publication of the pictures could prompt further attacks against security forces ahead.
"The danger is that this material could be used by the enemy to incite violence against US and Afghan service members in Afghanistan," Panetta said. "US forces in the country are taking security measures to guard against it."
The US ambassador in Afghanistan Ryan Crocker also condemned the photographs, calling the actions of the soldiers "morally repugnant" and saying they "dishonour the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers and civilians who have served with distinction in Afghanistan".
The LA Times defended the distribution of the photos, which US militaryofficials asked the LA Times not to publish.
"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," Times editor Davan Maharaj said in the newspaper's article.
The photos are likely to stir up more anti-western sentiment in Afghanistan as Nato combat troops look to exit the country in 2014 and strengthen fragile security in the country.
Such incidents have complicated US efforts to negotiate a strategic partnership agreement to define its presence once most foreign combat troops pull out by the end of 2014
Quoting JamesMom714:
It has happened in every (recorded) war... I am not sure why people are surprised by this. Not that I am saying it is right, but it is war... To an extent soldiers have to see the enemy as prey and de-humanize them as a survival strategy.
This. Yes, it's horrible that they think it's ok to take pics with body parts. And btw...what the hell are they doing putting them on the internet? But I try to keep in mind that they are being shot at daily by these people. I can't imagine how I would feel in their shoes.
Not surprising at all, when you consider some of the screwball trash we let join the military.
"Roger that. Over."
R A D I O H E I D
War shakes everyone involved in it at a fundamental level. Some of those people never come back. Its a tragic casualty of war. Very sad.
How far you go in life depends on your being: tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of both the weak and strong. Because someday in life you would have been one or all of these. GeorgeWashingtonCarver
It's war, it does shitty things to people and makes them do shitty things.
Quoting JamesMom714:
It has happened in every (recorded) war... I am not sure why people are surprised by this. Not that I am saying it is right, but it is war... To an extent soldiers have to see the enemy as prey and de-humanize them as a survival strategy.
Yeah, maybe you're right. But it's sick.
I can't imagine what it's like to be in combat like that, but somehow you have to come to terms with the fact that you just killed another human being. But that's got to be the most unhealthy way to deal with it.
I don't like it, they probably see some brutality by the Afgans. Google Afgans cutting off ears and noses and see what you come up with. Bibi Aisha had her nose cut off brutally by her husband, while her brother held her down. Nazia got both her ears, her nose cut off by her hubby, along with her teeth broken, and her head shaved. Do I like those military pictures? NO. Some parts of society can be very brutal over there. Can't understand the concept of posing in those pictures, and I damn sure can't understand the cutting off of noses and ears either.
The Young Won't Buy ObamaCare
- katy_kay08
on Apr. 18, 2012 at 10:37 AM