U.S. officials moved swiftly Thursday to try to prevent diplomatic harm and contain public disgust in the release of a video that appeared to show Marines urinating on 3 Afghan corpses - pictures that spread quickly round the globe.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta stated he had viewed the video and considered it "utterly deplorable." He telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai and pledged a full investigation.
Before the phone, Karzai described the video as "completely inhumane and condemnable within the strongest possible terms." His administration called on the U.S. military to "apply the most severe punishment to everyone found guilty in this crime."
The video, which runs for under a minute, depicts four Marines in fight gear laughing and joking as they urinate on 3 male bodies. The caption refers for the corpses as "dead Talibans," however it is unclear no matter whether the men had been civilians or fighters killed right after a battle.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed "total dismay" in the behavior depicted while in the recording, and said the "vast, vast" vast majority of American military personnel wouldn't engage in this kind of actions.
The U.S. Marines have identified the unit whose forces are suspected of being behind a video appearing to display them urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban in Afghanistan, a Marine officer told Reuters on Thursday.
