Pentagon assures Afghans of probe into Marine video

WASHINGTON (AP):

Pentagon leaders scrambled yesterday to contain damage from an Internet video purporting to show four Marines urinating on Taliban corpses, an act that appears to violate international laws of warfare and put further strains US-Afghan relations.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to offer assurances of a full investigation and the top Marine general promised an internal probe as well as a criminal one. Investigators moved quickly to identify some of those involved, confirming they were members of a sniper unit from Camp Lejeune, NC, who had served in Afghanistan last year.

As the video spread across the Internet in postings and repostings, US officials joined with Afghans in calling it shocking, deplorable, inhumane and a breach of military standards of conduct. It shows men in Marine combat gear standing in a semi-circle urinating on the bodies of three men in standard Afghan clothing, one whose chest was covered in blood.

It's not certain whether the dead were Taliban fighters, civilians or someone else.

The incident will likely further hurt US ties with Karzai's government and complicate negotiations over a strategic partnership arrangement meant to govern the presence of US troops and advisers in Afghanistan after most international combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.