US Marines grilled over Taliban urination video

Four US Marines seen in a video urinating on bloodstained corpses of Afghan militants have been questioned over the scandal, which has deeply embarrassed the military, American officials said on Friday. All four men are from a sniper unit in the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and they were grilled by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service which is leading a criminal inquiry into the affair. The marine unit was deployed in southwestern Afghanistan's Helmand province from March to September last year, and the video "potentially" was shot during that period, a military official told AFP. The first two troops to be questioned remain on active duty. "They're not in custody" over the disturbing footage, added the US official, who asked not to be named because of the ongoing probe. All four troops have now been questioned, a NCIS spokeswoman said. "All four are currently in the US," she said. "NCIS investigators are still tracking down information on the individual(s) who created and posted the video as well as initiating computer forensic techniques on the video itself." In an indication of the seriousness of the scandal, a three-star marine general, Thomas Waldhauser, has been appointed to lead a second probe into the video footage. The images conjured up previous abuses committed by US troops during the decade-long war and also in Iraq and prompted a scramble by US officials on Thursday to condemn the soldiers. One of the marines, apparently aware he was being filmed, was heard saying: "Have a great day, buddy," referring to one of the dead. Feared anti-US protests over the video, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai described as "simply inhuman," failed to materialize after Friday prayers in Kabul, but anger ran deep on the streets. "This is an absolutely savage act and condemnable in any religion," said Waheedullah, a 20-year-old road construction worker, as he left a Kabul mosque. "First they kill Afghans in their homeland and then they urinate on them. It is not acceptable -- we should do it to them." US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday said the troops' behavior was "utterly deplorable," while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of her "total dismay" at the acts. Both vowed that the culprits would be found and punished. But the mullah at Kabul's biggest mosque did not mention the incident in his sermon Friday, and worshippers dispersed peacefully. Past protests have been sparked by inflammatory sermons. "There has been kind of a deliberate effort by people inside the government to cover up the issue," Mati Kharoti, an Afghan analyst and commentator, told AFP. "But this doesn't mean that nothing will happen. It takes time for people to become aware of the news, thus I believe there is a good possibility we will witness angry reactions in the coming days." The muted reaction so far echoed a surprisingly measured response by the Taliban, whose Islamic fighters are believed to be the victims in the video. A Taliban spokesman condemned the behavior of the troops as "barbaric," but said it would not derail tentative moves towards peace talks between the insurgents and the United States. "Normally such an issue would be used to bash foreigners, but their reaction could be an indicator that they might be serious about talks," said Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. The Afghan government also appeared to be choosing not to use the issue to inflame anger against its US ally, she said, pointing out that most demonstrations in Kabul tended to be organized, not spontaneous. The video has been broadcast regularly by major Afghan TV channel Tolo News, but many of the country's more conservative citizens living outside the major cities do not have access to the pictures. The scandal is the latest in a long line to tarnish the image of the US military in the past decade, from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq to more recent convictions of troops who killed Afghan civilians for sport.