GRAPHIC CONTENT: Photos from weekend attacks in Afghanistan

22 photos

The Los Angeles Times published controversial photos today showing U.S. soldiers posing with bodies of dead Afghan insurgents. The images were given to The Times by an American soldier, who provided a series of 18 photos on condition of anonymity.

On Sunday, Kabul was rocked by intense gunfire and explosions as part of a “spring offensive” claimed by the Taliban that lasted into Monday. According to reports, the attacks were focused on targets including the parliament building, the NATO force’s headquarters, and Western embassies.

Below are photos and reporting from war photographers in Kabul: Sabawoon Amarkhil, Johannes Eisele, Bay Ismoyo, Massoud Hossaini, Shah Marai, all of AFP/Getty Images, and Parwiz and Omar Sobhani of Reuters.

Related story on The Baltimore Sun: U.S. troops pose with Afghan insurgent bodies

KABUL (Reuters) – Already tense U.S. and NATO ties with Afghanistan were dealt another blow on Wednesday with photographs appearing in an American newspaper of U.S. soldiers posing with the maimed bodies of dead Afghan insurgents.

Senior U.S. officials and NATO’s top commander in the country, U.S. General John Allen, moved quickly to condemn the pictures even before they were published by the Los Angeles Times, which received the photos from another soldier.

“The actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies of International Security Assistance Force or the U.S. Army,” Allen said in a statement, adding an investigation into the incident was underway.

The appearance on the LA Times website of some of the 18 pictures, taken in 2010, comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-Afghan relations, following release of a video in January that showed four U.S. Marines urinating on Afghan insurgent corpses.

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