U.S. Army Apologizes For “Repugnant” Photos Of Soldiers Posing Over Civilian Corpses

The U.S. Army is apologizing for “trophy photos” of grinning soldiers posing over dead corpses of Afghan civilians. The army described the photographs as “repugnant.”

The pictures were published by German news organisation Der Spiegel and were among 4,000 they have obtained.

Meanwhile, commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for a public backlash and possible riots over the ‘trophy’ photographs, especially since it has been alleged that the Afghan civilians were unarmed and innocent…

Der Spiegel magazine says it has identified one of the soldiers in the photographs as Cpl Jeremy Morlock of Alaska.

He is one of five soldiers accused of the premeditated murder of three Afghan civilians earlier this year.

Morlock agreed to plead guilty in late February and get a shorter prison term if he testified against the other accused soldiers.

Four other soldiers based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord have been charged with murder and conspiracy in the case – they deny the charges.

Seven others have been charged with conspiracy to cover up the alleged murders.

Other charges include the mutilation of corpses, the possession of images of human casualties and drug abuse.

In one of the photos, Morlock is seen grinning as he lifts up the head of a corpse by the hair, turning it towards the camera.

Der Spiegel identified the body as that of Gul Mudin, whom Morlock was charged with killing on 15 January 2010, in Kandahar Province.

Another photo shows Private 1st Class Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, holding the head of the same corpse.

His lawyer, Daniel Conway, said on Sunday that Holmes was ordered ‘to be in the photo, so he got in the photo. That doesn’t make him a murderer’.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.