Army Apologizes for Afghan Abuse Photos

German magazine Der Spiegel yesterday released an article and several troubling photos of an alleged U.S. army "kill team" posing with corpses of dead Afghanis. The U.S. Army quickly apologized "for the distress these photos cause."

On Sunday, Der Spiegel published photos and a feature story relating to an alleged drug-addled "kill team" in Afghanistan. The indicted U.S. soldiers allegedly murdered innocent Afghanistan civilians in 2010. One particularly shocking photo shows Specialist Jeremy Morlock and Private Andrew Holmes holding the head of an unarmed Afghan man the newspaper identifies as Gul Mudin.

(Warning: the photos linked to in this article contain graphic and horrific content, viewer discretion is advised).

Another photo depicts two dead Afghan civilians, chained to a pillar with handcuffed hands.

Der Spiegel claims to have more than 4,000 photos and videos relating to these incidents. As Al Jazeera explains, these photos "were covered by a judicial order from a military court prohibiting their dissemination, and it was unclear how the newspaper obtained them."

The U.S. Army apologized for the photos, saying in a statement: "Today Der Spiegel published photographs depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army. We apologize for the distress these photos cause."

Morlock, on trial for murdering Afghani civilians, signed a plea deal, agreeing to testify against other indicted members of his squad in exchange for no more than 24 years in prison. As the New York Daily News reports, "He agreed to plead guilty to three counts of murder, as well as charges of conspiring to commit murder, conspiring to assault a fellow soldier, trying to impede an investigation and using hashish."

How did the soldiers plan these incidents? As Der Spiegel explains about one incident, which has been reconstructed based on documents from the investigation, "the soldiers themselves detonated a hand grenade in order to make it look like they were the subjects of an attack before killing a man. One of those who allegedly participated, Adam Winfield, 21, described the incident to his father in a chat on the social networking site Facebook. 'They made it look like the guy threw a grenade at them and mowed him down,' SPIEGEL quotes Winfield as having written in the chat."

The Der Spiegel article states 12 men are also facing further charges of desecration of corpses, illegal possession of photos of corpses, drug abuse and acts of bodily injury against comrades.