US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday condemned and apologized for freshly published photos showing US soldiers posing with dead Afghans, while also noting that young soldiers occasionally get "caught up in the moment", DPA reported
"This is war, and I know that war is ugly and it's violent. And I know that young people sometimes caught up in the moment make some very foolish decisions," he told reporters in Brussels, on the sidelines of a meeting with his NATO counterparts.
"I'm not excusing that behaviour ... This is not who we are and it's certainly not who we represent," he was quick to add. "But neither do I want these images to bring further injury to our people or our relationship with the Afghan people."
When asked if he had apologized for the incident to NATO partners on Wednesday, Panetta said he was not asked about it, but that "my apology is on behalf of the Department of Defence and the US government."
The Pentagon said an investigation into the photos was underway and anyone found responsible would be held accountable under the military justice system.
It had asked the Los Angeles Times newspaper not to publish the photos. Panetta justified the move by saying that such images are "used by the enemy to incite violence" against US and Afghan troops.
The photos "appear to show US Army personnel posing with the bodies of insurgents who killed themselves in suicide attacks in 2010," NATO said in a statement.
The newspaper quoted a soldier as saying that he had decided to release the photos "to draw attention to the safety risk of a breakdown in leadership and discipline."
The newspaper said it had received 18 photos.
"Two soldiers posed holding a dead man's hand with the middle finger raised," it wrote. "A soldier leaned over the bearded corpse while clutching the man's hand. Someone placed an unofficial platoon patch reading 'Zombie Hunter' next to other remains and took a picture."
General John Allen, the commander of the NATO-led military alliance in Afghanistan, said it was "a serious error in judgment by several soldiers who have acted out of ignorance and unfamiliarity" with US Army values.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described the photos as an "isolated incident" that he too hoped would not lead to retaliatory violence against international troops in Afghanistan.
"(These acts) don't in any way represent the principles and values that are the basis for our mission," he said in Brussels. "There will be taken necessary and appropriate steps to hold people to account."
Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Kabul, also condemned the incident.
"Such actions are morally repugnant, dishonour the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers and civilians who have served with distinction in Afghanistan, and do not represent the core values of the United States or our military," he said in a statement.
This is not the first time such photos have surfaced. Photographs published last year showed US soldiers posing with the corpses of Afghan civilians as "war trophies."
An undated video released in January showed US soldiers urinating on dead militants.
The incidents have undermined the credibility of the alliance, which is fighting a decade-old insurgency.
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