Thursday, October 20, 2005 Posted: 1755 GMT (0155 HKT)
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U.S. troops accused of corpse abuse (3:06)
(CNN) -- The American military and the Afghan government say they are investigating allegations that U.S. soldiers burned the bodies of killed Taliban fighters.
The U.S. military said Thursday it found the claims "repugnant" and would investigate an Australian television report in which they were first made.
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai added that his government had launched its own probe into the alleged desecration. (Watch the video that launched the investigation -- 3:06)
"We strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends," spokesman Karim Rahimi told The Associated Press.
Australia's SBS television network broadcast footage Wednesday showing purported U.S. soldiers standing by the burning corpses of two suspected Taliban fighters with their bodies laid out facing Mecca.
The footage includes a propaganda message taunting Taliban fighters to retrieve their dead and fight. The footage was filmed in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, AP said.
SBS said the footage was taken by freelance journalist Stephen Dupont, who told AP he was embedded with the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the U.S. Army earlier this month. Dupont said the burnings happened on October 1.
The U.S. military said the Army's Criminal Investigation Division was investigating what it called "alleged misconduct" by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan that included "the burning of dead enemy combatant bodies under inappropriate circumstances."
In a statement issued Thursday from the Afghan capital Kabul, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, Combined Joint Task Force-76 Commander, said: "This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation.
"This command does not condone the mistreatment of enemy combatants or the desecration of their religious and cultural beliefs," he said.
"This alleged action is repugnant to our common values, is contrary to our command's approved tactical operating procedures, and is not sanctioned by this command.
"Our efforts to thoroughly investigate this allegation are a reflection of our commitment to the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan people."
If the allegations are substantiated, Kamiya said, "the appropriate course of action ... and corrective action will be taken."
U.S. Central Command also issued a release, saying that "recent media reports" showed U.S. soldiers "involved in an incident involving the desecration of the bodies of deceased enemy combatants.
"Under no circumstances does U.S. Central Command condone the desecration, abuse or inappropriate treatment of enemy combatants," the release said.
The U.S. military operation in Afghanistan started a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. It ousted the Taliban government that harbored the al Qaeda terror network responsible for those attacks.
Fighting in the country has persisted, particularly along and near the Afghan-Pakistani border, where remnants of the Taliban have endured over the years.
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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