BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. troops are seen posing with the maimed bodies of suspected Afghan insurgents in photos published yesterday, an incident that threatened to further fray U.S.-Afghan ties and prompted yet another apology from Washington for soldiers’ misbehaviour.
In one of the pictures, a U.S. paratrooper posed next to an unofficial patch placed beside a body that read “Zombie Hunter,” while in another photo soldiers posed with Afghan police holding the severed legs of an insurgent bomber.
Two soldiers in another photo held a dead insurgent’s hand with the middle finger raised.
U.S. officials quickly condemned the behaviour seen in the pictures published by the Los Angeles Times.
While it was too soon to say whether the photos – which date from 2010 – would cause a violent backlash in Afghanistan, they extend a series of events that have embarrassed the White House and complicated President Barack Obama’s South Asia strategy.
In recent months, a video circulated of Marines urinating on corpses that were apparently those of Afghan insurgents; U.S. troops burned copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, prompting riots; and a U.S. soldier left his base in a rural province and allegedly slaughtered 17 Afghan civilians.
In neighbouring Pakistan, relations sunk to a new low after a disputed November incident in which a U.S. airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Washington has not apologised in that case.
During a meeting of NATO allies in Brussels on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologised for the latest incident “on behalf of the Department of Defense and the U.S. government” and said “that behaviour is unacceptable.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama flew to Ohio for an economic speech, “The conduct depicted in those photos is reprehensible.”
Carney said Obama was briefed on the matter but he did not know whether the president had seen the photos, which the Los Angeles Times said it received from a soldier.
The incident dealt another blow to already tense U.S. and NATO ties with Afghanistan.
“That behaviour that was depicted in those photos absolutely violates both our regulations and more importantly oucore values,” Panetta told a news conference, adding that the pictures were under investigation.
“I know that war is ugly and it’s violent and I know that young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions,” he added. “I’m not excusing that behaviour, but neither do I want these images to bring further injury to our people and to our relationship with the Afghan people.”
POSSIBLE BACKLASH
The photos could stir up more anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan as NATO combat troops look to exit the country in 2014 and strengthen fragile security.
Such incidents have complicated U.S. efforts to negotiate a strategic partnership agreement to define its presence once most foreign combat troops pull out by the end of 2014.
Panetta said he regretted the Times’ decision to publish some of the photos, which he said might trigger retaliatory violence against foreign soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.