U.S. troops posed with Afghan bodies
Apr 18, 2012, 4:58 AM | Updated: 5:21 am
More U.S. Troops are accused of posing with Afghan corpses for photos.
The Los Angeles Times reports paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.
When the 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts, then posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held — and others squatted beside — the corpse’s severed legs.
A soldier from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division with the body of an Afghan insurgent killed while trying to plant a roadside bomb. The photo is one of 18 provided to The Times of U.S. soldiers posing with corpses.
CBS Military Consultant Retired Army Major Mike Lyons tells us this latest incident points to a “lack of oversight.”
“There’s still no excuse for it, but fundamentally the fact that this has happened before and it continued to happen does lead you to think that there wasn’t enough oversight and discipline with regards to these kinds of situations,” says Lyons.
An American soldier says he released the photos to the Times to draw attention to the safety risk of a breakdown in leadership and discipline. The Army has started a criminal investigation.
