KABUL — Photos showing American servicemen in mocking trophy shots with the bodies of suicide bombers drew expressions of revulsion from Afghans after the pictures’ publication Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times.
Initial public reaction was muted, however, in part because many ordinary Afghans, especially those living in rural parts of the country, do not have access to the Internet to view the images. The country’s main evening news broadcasts did not show the photos.
The graphic pictures represented the latest in a series of damaging incidents and disclosures involving American troops in Afghanistan.
But Afghans interviewed about the scenes shown in the photographs seemed more disgusted and saddened than furiously indignant.
The fact that the photos in question were taken two years ago did little to blunt the disdain.
“Nothing has changed since then, and nothing will,” said Farhad Mohammad, a merchant in the southern city of Kandahar. “Always it is a matter of disrespect.”
Suicide bombers, who cause hundreds of civilian deaths every year, are widely despised. Even so, the taboo against desecration of the dead is strong in this religiously conservative country.
“We condemn Americans posing with dead bodies or body parts,” said Najla Dehqan Nezhad, a member of parliament from the western province of Herat.
The Taliban made no initial statement, although the group generally exploits such incidents for propaganda purposes.
President Hamid Karzai, who often has been harshly critical of the actions of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and American troops in particular, was silent in the initial hours following the photos’ publication. His office did not immediately return calls seeking comment, although a presidential spokesman said Wednesday evening that a statement was forthcoming.
