U.S. soldiers grinning for picks with Afghan bomber body parts

The hits just keep coming for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. (And let’s not forget NATO.) The Los Angeles Times published a bombshell today: A division of U.S. paratroopers had posed with the dead body parts of bombers in numerous photographs.

The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held — and others squatted beside — the corpse’s severed legs.

A few months later, the same platoon was dispatched to investigate the remains of three insurgents who Afghan police said had accidentally blown themselves up. After obtaining a few fingerprints, they posed next to the remains, again grinning and mugging for photographs.

Two soldiers posed holding a dead man’s hand with the middle finger raised. A soldier leaned over the bearded corpse while clutching the man’s hand. Someone placed an unofficial platoon patch reading “Zombie Hunter” next to other remains and took a picture.

WOW. Macabre really doesn’t seem strong enough. This behavior is just disgusting—wickedness of the deceased aside.

Read the rest, and see two of the photos, here. Army officials, who launched a criminal investigation, apparently did not know about the pictures until LAT, which got 18 photos from one of the soldiers, showed them.