Scandal over photos of German troops

The Bild newspaper published the pictures of German ISAF soldiers posing with a skull and making obscene gestures in Afghanistan

Berlin: German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung on Wednesday ordered an investigation after a newspaper printed photographs of German soldiers in Afghanistan playing and posing with a skull.

“These pictures revolt and mystify me,” Jung told the popular daily Bild, which splashed the photographs on its front page.

They show German soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force displaying the skull like scalp hunters. In one picture, a soldier mounts it on the cablecutter at the front of the group’s patrol vehicle, which bears both the German flag and the acronym for the international force, ISAF.

In another, a soldier in a camouflage uniform and bullet-proof vest poses with the skull next to his exposed penis.

Bild said the photographs were taken in 2003. The soldiers reportedly found it in a gravel pit outside Kabul while they were on patrol near the Afghan capital. The affair was given wide coverage on German television news channels on Wednesday.
Mumbia Mirror