US President Barack Obama says American soldiers shown in photos apparently abusing Afghan corpses in 2010 should be held accountable, adding that their conduct was reprehensible, the BBC cited White House spokesman Jay Carney as saying.
The Los Angeles Times newspaper that published the pictures on Wednesday April 18, 2012, reported that White House, American Embassy in Kabul and American officials rushed to distance themselves from the actions of the US soldiers who posed for photographs next to corpses and body parts of Afghan insurgents. The pictures apparently show soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division posing with the remains in Afghanistan's eastern Zabul Province.
Only two photos of incidents from a 2010 deployment were published. In one, the hand of a corpse is propped on the shoulder of a paratrooper. In another, the disembodied legs of a suicide bomber are displayed by grinning soldiers and Afghan police. Observers say the incident comes at a particularly sensitive time for US-Afghan relations after the murder of 17 Afghan civilians in March stirred up anti-Western sentiments.
Speaking at a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO conference in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday April 18, 2012, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta apologised for the action, saying there was no excuse for such behavior. He expressed concern that the publication of the pictures might bring further injury to America’s relationship with Afghan people.
In a similar development, three members of the US Secret Service are leaving the agency following a prostitution scandal in Colombia. Assistant Director Paul Morrissey said one supervisor was sacked, one retired and a more junior employee resigned. Senior US officials said 20 women were found at a hotel in Cartagena in Colombia where the secret agents were staying just before President Obama arrived there for the Summit of Americas last weekend. Lie detecting tests are being carried out on the accused as investigations into the scandal continue.
