Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have been enraged by a video which shows US marines urinating on three corpses, believed to be insurgents, and some say they do not understand their leadership’s relatively measured response to the tape.
News of the clip spread fast across Afghanistan, even though only a minority of people have electricity, and the internet is restricted to a tiny urban elite. Radio can reach remote militants and villagers, and mobile phones are used by many Afghans on both sides of the war for storing and sharing videos even in remote areas with little communications infrastructure. “I heard from some friends about this shameful act of the US forces but could not see it at first,” said one militant who called himself Qari Babar, explaining that a Pashto-language radio broadcast first alerted him to the tape’s existence.
The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, shows four Marines in camouflage combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them jokes: “Have a nice day, buddy.” Another makes a lewd joke. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the video, describing the men’s actions as “inhuman” and calling for an investigation.