German inquiry into Afghan skull photos

Newspaper pictures purporting to show German soldiers desecrating a human skull in Afghanistan caused outrage in Germany yesterday and prompted the government to launch an immediate investigation.

A photograph of a smiling soldier in fatigues posing with a skull was splashed on the front page of top-selling German daily Bild under the headline: "Shock photos of German troops".

The images, apparently taken more than three years ago, were published as the German army seeks to expand its global role nearly 60 years after World War Two amid public scepticism.

Other photographs showed an unidentified soldier clutching the skull next to his exposed penis and the skull resting on the front wing of a light armoured vehicle. Bild said the soldiers were on a routine tour around Kabul.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the pictures were repulsive.

"Such behaviour is inexcusable," she said on the sidelines of a defence event in Berlin. "The government will investigate the soldiers involved and take rigorous steps against them."

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told a news conference at which a new long-term security strategy for Germany was presented that the pictures aroused "disgust and horror".

Lawmakers from all parties expressed shock over the photos, published more than two years after images were released showing US soldiers abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail, a revelation which severely damaged the US army's reputation.

The furore also prompted US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, visiting Berlin, to call for a thorough probe.

"Sometimes things happen which are not supposed to. We condemn that," he told Handelsblatt newspaper. Mr Gonzales himself has faced criticism for his role in shaping US policies blamed for contributing to the torture of terrorism suspects.

Some 3,000 German soldiers are in Afghanistan, mainly in the north and Kabul, as part of Nato's peacekeeping forces. Mr Jung's review, the first since 1994, sets out a vision for Germany's military as an intervention and anti-terrorism force.

Mr Jung, who did not confirm the images' authenticity, ordered an investigation and said action would be taken if necessary. Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said such practices did not reflect the behaviour of its troops.