In wake of photos, Karzai asks for speedy departure

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 19 (UPI) -- The president of Afghanistan asked the United States to leave the country sooner following the publication of photos of soldiers posing with bodies.

President Hamid Karzai issued a statement Thursday calling the behavior shown in the photographs "inhumane and provocative," the Los Angeles Times reported.

Karzai said he wants to see an "accelerated and full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces so Afghanistan can take over its own destiny, and thus no such things can be repeated by the foreign forces in Afghanistan."

The Taliban also issued a statement Thursday, denouncing the "gruesome acts" depicted in the photos.

"Some Afghan hirelings … posed in the photos, at their masters' orders, to scorn the remains of martyrs," the statement said.

U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the photos after their publication in the Los Angeles Times and the U.S. military has started an investigation into the incidents, which took place in 2010.