Afghanistan to Investigate Burned Bodies

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has ordered an internal investigation into the desecration of bodies by U.S. troops captured on tape by a TV crew.

Karzai condemned what he saw Friday, reportedly two Taliban fighters whose dead bodies were burned and then desecrated in a way that violated Islamic law, The New York Times reports.

The incident took place Oct. 1 in Gonbaz, about 60 miles north of Kandahar.

Time Magazine reports soldiers said the bodies began bloating and smelling in the 90-degree heat and they were ordered to burn the bodies.

The Muslim religion holds the dead body as sacred and forbids cremation.

The report on Australian television said the bodies were used in a psychological operations campaign to draw out insurgent fighters.

The Pentagon is conducting an investigation but Karzai ordered one of his own, saying that if it doesn’t satisfy him, he will order more.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission also spoke out against the incident, calling it a violation of the Geneva Conventions.