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| U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan. The Pentagon has "identified them" and their originating base in the United States. |
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Marines believe they have identified the troops seen urinating in a shocking video on the corpses of insurgents in Afghanistan, a senior American military official said Thursday.
The video, which shows what appear to be American forces urinating on dead Taliban fighters, prompted anger in Afghanistan, but the insurgent group said it would not harm nascent efforts to broker peace talks.
Posted on YouTube and other websites, the video shows four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them jokes: “Have a nice day, buddy.” Another makes a lewd joke.
The Pentagon has “identified them” and their originating base in the United States, said the official on condition of anonymity, effectively dampening speculation about whether or not the men pictured were actually U.S. personnel.
A second official, U.S. Marines spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Plenzler, said they have “identified the unit,” but added that “we cannot release the name of the unit at this time since the incident is being investigated.”
U.S. cable network CNN quoted an unnamed U.S. Marine official as saying the military branch was “confident” the troops in the inflammatory video were from the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marine Regiment, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The unit deployed to Afghanistan, mainly in Helmand province, in early 2011 and returned in September or October, CNN reported.
The administration of President Barack Obama has expressed revulsion at the video, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta condemning the acts as “utterly deplorable” and vowing a full investigation by the Marines and the Kabul-based International Security Assistance Force.
Panetta also spoke by telephone with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, who denounced acts depicted in the video as “deplorable, reprehensible and unacceptable.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the “deplorable behavior” that is reflected in the video of the Marines and said it is “absolutely inconsistent with American values, with the standards of behavior that we expect from our military personnel.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement that “the government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed” at “desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans.”
“This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms,” he said.
“We expressly ask the U.S. government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime.”
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