Germany probes report soldiers in Afghanistan posed with skull

Germany's Defence Ministry said Wednesday it is investigating photos published by the country's biggest-selling newspaper that appear to show German troops in Afghanistan posing with a skull.

The Bild daily said the macabre pictures, one of which it printed on its front page Wednesday, showed German peacekeepers near the capital Kabul, in early 2003.

The uniformed men were seen holding up the skull and posing with it on a jeep; one is seen exposing himself with the skull. Bild's headline declared: "German soldiers desecrate a dead person."

The newspaper said it was unclear where the skull came from, or whether it belonged to an Afghan or dated back to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. It did not say how it obtained the photos.

"We are taking the accusations seriously," Defence Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said Wednesday. He added that Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung had ordered they be looked into immediately.

"It is clear and unambiguous that such behaviour on the part of German soldiers absolutely cannot be tolerated.… The pictures arouse repulsion," Bild quoted Jung as saying.

He pledged that, if the accusations are borne out, authorities will "draw the necessary disciplinary and possibly also legal consequences."

Germany has about 2,800 troops in NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, in Afghanistan.