Marines identify unit ‘urinating’ on Taliban bodies

THE US Marines have identified the unit whose forces are suspected of being behind a video appearing to show them urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a Marine officer.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Marines in question were believed to be from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which is based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The video prompted anger in Afghanistan and promises of a US investigation, but the insurgent group said it would not harm nascent efforts to broker peace talks.

The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, 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.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the video, describing the men’s actions as “inhuman” and calling for an investigation, in a statement yesterday evening.

In Washington US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta telephoned Karzai to denounce the actions in the video as “deplorable” and to say it would be investigated immediately, the Pentagon said.

Although the US military has stopped short of confirming the video is authentic, the Pentagon yesterday came close. Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby said, “We don’t have any indication that it’s not authentic.”

The video is likely to stir up already strong anti-US sentiment in Afghanistan after a decade of a war that has seen other cases of abuse, and that could complicate efforts to promote reconciliation as foreign troops gradually withdraw.

“Such action will leave a very, very bad impact on peace efforts,” Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of the Afghan government’s High Peace Council, told Reuters.

The administration of US President Barack Obama, seeing a glimmer of hope after months of efforts to broker talks, is launching a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy this weekend.

Marc Grossman, Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will fly into the region for talks with Karzai and top officials in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. His immediate goal is to seal agreement for the Taliban to open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Despite concerns when the video first emerged that it would not help his efforts to build confidence among the warring parties, a Taliban spokesman said although the images were shocking, the tape would not affect talks or a mooted prisoner release.

“We know that our country is occupied ... . This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage.”

Panetta called the actions shown in the film “utterly deplorable” and said he had ordered the Marine Corps and the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to investigate.

“Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent,” he said in a statement.

General James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, said in a statement the video “apparently depicts Marines desecrating several dead Taliban in Afghanistan.”

He said he had asked the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to investigate and had set up another internal inquiry headed by Marine officers.

News of the footage had yet to spread in Afghanistan — a country where the internet is limited to a tiny urban elite — but Afghans who were told about what the tape appears to show were horrified.

The tape also sparked anger across the Middle East and in internet chatrooms, prompting reference to earlier scandals involving US soldiers’ treatment of prisoners in Iraq and the killing of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.