Germany’s Der Spiegel magazines published pictures on Monday of American troops posing over the bloodied dead body of a young man it said it had been killed illegally in Afghanistan, drawing an apology from the U.S. army, Reuters reported.
The magazine said one of the pictures showed a smiling Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, who agreed last month to plead guilty to murder charges and testify against his co-defendants in a court martial, according to media reports.
He is one of the five military members who were charged with killing innocent people and Morlock is facing up to 25 years in prison after reducing from life sentence.
In a statement, the U.S. army said the photos depicted “actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and valued of the United States Army.” It added that “We apologize for the distress these photos cause.”
The dozens of war-relate photos seized as evidence are intensely embarrassing for the U.S and have drawn comparisons with pictures of Iraqi prisoners taken by US military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world.
The case threatens to strain already fragile US-Afghan relations at a time when the two countries are negotiating over the establishment of permanent of US military bases in Afghanistan, news agencies reported.
(아주경제 송지영 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com