US apologises for 'kill team' photos of Andrew Holmes and Jeremy Morlock with Afghans

[Feuer Frei!]

THE US Army has apologised after the publication of photos showing their soldiers smiling and posing with civilians they allegedly murdered. This week, German news magazine Der Spiegel published three photographs said to show two US soldiers accused of being part of a rogue "kill team" last year during their tour in Afghanistan.
Perhaps the most damaging image appears to show one soldier smiling as he lifts the head of a dead, bloodied Afghan man.
One of the soldiers being court martialled over the murder of the three Afghan civilians has already announced his intention to plead guilty to murder charges, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The publication of the pictures by the paper, which says they are just three of 4000 it has obtained, is a public relations nightmare for the US army which is still recovering from the fall-out from the shocking Abu Ghraib pictures from Iraq published five years ago.


In their statement, the US army said the photographs depicted "actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army".

The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing US court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

source WARNING! GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING IMAGES CONTAINED IN ARTICLE!!!