Photographs obtained and posted on the entertainment and gossip website TMZ reportedly show U.S. Marines burning the bodies of Iraqi opponents in the aftermath of a military battle in the city of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004.
If deemed authentic, the grisly photos would be the latest evidence of U.S. soldiers treating dead enemy soldiers in a manner contrary to their claims of noble performance on the battlefield.
In response to the emergence of the images, the U.S. military has launched an internal investigation.
“We are aware of photos appearing on TMZ.com that depict individuals in U.S. Marine uniforms burning what appear to be human remains,” Navy Cmdr. Bill Speaks, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. “The actions depicted in these photos are not what we expect from our service members, nor do they represent the honorable and professional service of the more than 2.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
As the website itself reports:
The “gruesome” images from Fallujah come as the city, battered by U.S. forces during the first year of the war instigated by President George W. Bush, is once again in the news as internal violence has pitched Sunni militias angered at the Iraqi government of President Nouri al-Maliki against the Iraqi Army. As the Washington Post reports:
For Iraqis in Fallujah, many of whom remember a series of brutal assaults by U.S. forces with scant regard for civilian life, the legacy of those battles remain in the form of residual impacts from depleted uranium munitions used during the battles and destroyed infrastructure that has yet to be repaired.
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