US apologizes for more Afghan 'kill team' photos

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US military apologized again Monday after Rolling Stone published more photos and videos of members of an alleged rogue army unit “kill team” accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport.

A week after one soldier was jailed after striking a plea bargain to testify against the alleged ringleader, the weekly magazine published a series of graphic images and a long story including extensive detail of the allegations.

“The photos published by Rolling Stone are disturbing and in striking contrast to the standards and values of the United States Army,” said a Pentagon statement.

“Like those published by Der Spiegel, the Army apologizes for the distress these latest photos cause,” it said, referring to an initial set of less graphic pictures published by the German magazine last week.

The Rolling Stone pictures, under the headline “the Kill Team,” included unblurred versions of photos published by Der Spiegel showing soldiers posing with the bloodied body of an Afghan youth, holding the head up to the camera.

Battling to avoid a repetition of the Abu Ghraib scandal triggered by release of pictures of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the Pentagon apologized after Der Spiegel’s publication of images last week.

The new pictures were accompanied by two videos, including one set to a heavy rock soundtrack — and reportedly shared round among soldiers — showing two men being killed after allegedly planting a roadside bomb.

The accompanying story related how the youth shown in the still pictures, identified later as Gul Mudin, a farm worker, was picked out on January 15 last year as the first victim of the so-called “kill team.”

Corporal Jeremy Morlock — who was jailed for 24 years last week — and Private Andrew Holmes initially threw a grenade at the teenager before gunning him down, and pretending he had attacked them with the grenade.

The little finger of the boy’s right hand is missing, allegedly cut off as a trophy.

In the following months they and others staged a number of such killings, according to the Rolling Stone account, citing other witnesses questioned after the killings were revealed by a fellow soldier.

Morlock, one of five soldiers charged with murder and tried in a military court south of Seattle, is expected to be the star witness in the court martial of the alleged ringleader, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs.

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