Kabul, Afghanistan:
A video showing four United States Marines urinating on three dead Taliban fighters provoked anger and condemnation on Thursday in Afghanistan and around the world, raising fears in Washington that the images could incite anti-American sentiment at a particularly delicate moment in the decade-old Afghan war.
(Watch video)The Obama administration is struggling to keep the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, on its side as it carefully tries to open talks with the Taliban. Yet the video showing such a desecration - a possible war crime - is likely to weaken the American position with both. The Taliban and Mr. Karzai each pointed to the images as evidence of American brutality, a message with broad appeal in Afghanistan, where word of the video was slowly spreading on Thursday.
Senior military officials in Kabul and at the Pentagon confirmed that the video was authentic and that they had identified the Marines as members of the Third Battalion, Second Marines, which completed a tour of Afghanistan this fall before returning to its base at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The officials did not release the Marines' names but said one wore a corporal's uniform.
Pentagon officials said the video had been made between March and September 2011, when the Marine battalion was stationed in Helmand Province, a strategic Taliban heartland and a centre of the opium poppy trade. The officials said that they did not know the precise location shown in the video but that it had probably been made in the northern part of the province, where the battalion had been operating. Seven of the approximately 1,000 Marines in the battalion were killed during the seven-month deployment.
Pentagon officials said that as far as they knew, all four Marines were still on active duty.
Even before the authenticity of the video had been confirmed, expressions of outrage and contrition by Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top officials left no doubt that they regarded it as real.
Aware of the inflammatory potential, Mr. Panetta telephoned Mr. Karzai to assure him that an investigation was under way and that those responsible would be punished. Mr. Panetta told the Afghan leader that "the conduct depicted in the footage is utterly deplorable, and that it does not reflect the standards or values American troops are sworn to uphold," said George Little, the Pentagon spokesman.
The video showed the four Marines, in their distinctive sand-coloured camouflage, urinating over the three bodies - one covered in blood. One Marine says, "Have a great day, buddy."
The Taliban initially indicated that the video would not undermine the push toward talks, saying that they saw it as just more evidence of what they said was American brutality and arrogance.
But later on Thursday, in an official statement, the Taliban dropped references to the talks and emphasized the brutality message. "We strongly condemn the inhuman act of wild American soldiers, as ever, and consider this act in contradiction with all human and ethical norms," the statement said.
Mr. Karzai said that he was deeply disturbed and that he had asked the Americans to punish the perpetrators severely. "This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms," he said.
American officials reacted remorsefully throughout the day on Thursday in their damage-control effort. The American-led coalition in Afghanistan and the United States Embassy in Kabul offered separate condemnations. Coalition officials said in a statement that the behaviour displayed in the video "dishonours the sacrifices and core values of every service member representing the 50 nations of the coalition."
Mrs. Clinton expressed what she called "total dismay."
"It is absolutely inconsistent with American values and the standards we expect from our military personnel," she said in Washington, adding that anyone involved "must be held fully accountable."
Mr. Panetta said in Washington that he had ordered the Marines and Gen. John R. Allen, a Marine Corps officer who commands coalition forces in Afghanistan, to investigate immediately.
The video, posted on public video-sharing Web sites including LiveLeak and YouTube, began ricocheting around international news Web sites on Wednesday.
Whether the American condemnations will mollify the anger of Afghans remains unclear. But for those who had seen the video, the images appeared to deepen their dislike of the United States, which is widely seen as an occupier here.