ISAF Commander Condemns Objectionable Video

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2012 — The com­man­der of the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force in Afghanistan has joined oth­er senior Defense Depart­ment offi­cials in express­ing out­rage over a video post­ed on a pub­lic web­site that shows four Marines appar­ent­ly uri­nat­ing over three ene­my corpses.

“These actions are in direct oppo­si­tion to every­thing the mil­i­tary stands for,” Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen said after view­ing the video. “Such acts in no way reflect the high moral stan­dards and val­ues we expect of our armed forces on a dai­ly basis.”

Allen, who is trav­el­ing in the Unit­ed States, echoed com­ments made yes­ter­day by Defense Sec­re­tary Leon E. Panet­ta, who dis­cussed the video over the tele­phone yes­ter­day with Afghan Pres­i­dent Hamid Karzai.

“I assure the peo­ple of Afghanistan and the mem­bers of the coali­tion that there will be a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion and a full account­ing of what occurred,” Allen said.

“Such acts vio­late the sanc­ti­ty of the dead and are deplorable and must be con­demned in the strongest man­ner pos­si­ble. We will sup­port the inves­ti­ga­tion of these acts in every way for a swift deter­mi­na­tion of the facts,” Allen added. “If the inves­ti­ga­tion con­firms the egre­gious acts depict­ed on the video, we sup­port the appro­pri­ate admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice to hold account­able those who com­mit­ted them.”

In oth­er Afghanistan news today:

— In the Now Zad dis­trict of Hel­mand province, a com­bined Afghan and coali­tion secu­ri­ty force detained a sus­pect­ed insur­gent dur­ing a search for a Tal­iban leader who com­mands attack cells and plans bomb and small-arms attacks against Afghan officials.

— A com­bined force detained sev­er­al sus­pects while search­ing for a Haqqani net­work leader in the Nerkh dis­trict of War­dak province. The leader plans sui­cide-bomb attacks and oth­er insur­gent actions.

Else­where in Afghanistan, a com­bined force killed sev­er­al insur­gents Jan. 11 dur­ing a search for a Tal­iban leader in the Almar dis­trict of Faryab province.

The tar­get­ed leader is an explo­sives expert with ties to sui­cide-attack net­works. He is sus­pect­ed of plan­ning a sui­cide-bomb attack that killed an Afghan secu­ri­ty offi­cial in Octo­ber. The force also seized mul­ti­ple weapons, chest racks, grenades, rock­et-pro­pelled grenades and explosives. 

Source:
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force and ISAF Joint Com­mand News Releases 

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