US soldiers took
pictures of themselves posing with the mangled remains of suspected
Afghan suicide bombers on more than one occasion in 2010, the Los
Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
The LA Times said the US
Army had launched an investigation into the incident after the
newspaper showed them some of the photos, which it had obtained from a
soldier in the division.
The first incident took place in
February 2010, when paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division were
sent to an Afghan police station in Zabol province to inspect the
remains of an alleged suicide bomber.
The soldiers had intended
to try to get fingerprints and possibly scan the irises of the corpse,
but instead they posed for pictures next to the Afghan police, holding
up or squatting beside the remains, the newspaper said.
A few
months later, the same platoon went to inspect the remains of three
insurgents whom Afghan police said had blown themselves up by accident.
Two
soldiers posed holding up one of the dead men's hands with the middle
finger raised, while another leaned over the bearded corpse, the
newspaper reported.
Another soldier apparently placed an
unofficial platoon patch reading "Zombie Hunter" next to the other
remains and took a picture.
The LA Times said the military had
asked it not to publish the photos for fear of inciting violence, but
Times editor Davan Maharaj said that the newspaper had decided to
publish a "small but representative selection."
"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," he was quoted as saying.
As of early Wednesday, however, the photos had not yet appeared on the newspaper's website.
The photos come after a series of scandals that has strained US-Afghan ties.
In
March a US soldier allegedly went on a shooting rampage in two Afghan
villages, killing 17 people -- mostly women and children -- in what is
believed to be the deadliest war crime by a NATO soldier in the
decade-long conflict.
The burning of Korans in mid-February
triggered deadly anti-US protests, and there has been a surge in
"insider" attacks on NATO troops by Afghan forces.
NATO has a
130,000-strong US-led military force fighting the Islamist Taliban,
which has led an insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul government
since being toppled from power in 2001.
The US plans to gradually
draw down combat troops from the middle of next year before handing
over control to Afghan security forces by the end of 2014 as agreed by
the NATO alliance.