Photos showing soldiers, victim published

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash., March 21 (UPI) -- A German publication published two photos showing U.S. Army soldiers next to a dead Afghan civilian, despite a military judge's order prohibiting their release.

The photos are among hundreds of pictures the U.S. Army has tried to block from publication as it tries five members of the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, for the deaths of three unarmed Afghan civilians last year.

The photos were published in the print edition of Monday's Der Spiegel in an advance copy made available during the weekend to subscribers, The Washington Post said.

The U.S. Army said the subject matter in the photos -- depicting two soldiers posing separately with the corpse -- was "repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army."

"We apologize for the distress these photos cause," the Army statement said. "The actions portrayed in these photographs remain under investigation and are now the subject of ongoing U.S. court-martial proceedings, in which the accused are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty."

The soldiers in the photos -- Spc. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, and Pfc. Andrew Holmes of Boise, Idaho -- were charged with murder in the death of Gul Mudin, an unarmed Afghan civilian killed by their unit on Jan. 15, 2010, the Post said.

Charging documents indicate Mudin was walking toward the soldiers in Kandahar province and Morlock threw a grenade on the ground to create the illusion that the soldiers were under attack. Holmes saw the grenade and fired his weapon at Mudin; the grenade exploded, prompting other soldiers to fire on the villager, killing him.

Morlock has pleaded guilty to three counts of murder and is to be sentenced Wednesday at a court-martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.