US troops caught desecrating Taliban bodies

The Australian state broadcaster SBS showed highly sensitive footage yesterday of US troops burning two bodies of Taliban fighters killed in combat in a village north of Kandahar. The US military first claimed the bodies were burned for public health reasons, as the men were killed the day before.

But in Islamic culture, burning of bodies is seen as desecration, and freelance embedded cameraman Stephen Dupont, who captured the images, also witnessed Psychological Operations troops attempting to lure Taliban in the nearby area by broadcasting offenses over loud speakers.

According to the SBS report, the PsyOps soldiers played the following message along with American pop music: "You are too scared to retrieve their bodies - this just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."


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In response to a growing uproar, and the footage playing on news channels across the world, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Jason Kamiya, flew to Kandahar to consult officers about the incident. The State Department called the action "unrepresentative" of American values.

The burning of the bodies seems to have been intended to offend Muslim sensibilities, and was also in extremely clear contravention of the Geneva Conventions. The Washington Post coverage provides analysis similar to that of the Australian TV correspondents:

"If true, the incident would fit a seeming pattern that has emerged of the U.S. military gaining enough knowledge of Islamic culture and sensitivities to devise ways of offending Muslims," said Khaled Abu el Fadl, a specialist in Islamic law at UCLA law school.