US sorry for Afghan corpse photos

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.

They show two soldiers kneeling over a body. They each hold the face of the dead person 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.