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US soldiers posed with dead Afghan
Two US army soldiers allegedly involved in a 12-man "kill team"accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport have been shown in leaked photographs posing with one of their victims.

Specialist Jeremy Morlock and Private Andrew Holmes are shown holding up the head of a man identified by Germany's Der Spiegel magazine as Gul Mudin, an unarmed Afghan they are accused of killing on January 15, 2010.

The magazine first released the images behind a pay-wall online on Sunday night and then published them on Monday.

Their release comes just head of an anticipated speech on Tuesday by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, that will announce the beginning of a transfer of security from international to Afghan control.

The photos are said to be among a number seized by Army investigators looking into the deaths of three unarmed Afghans last year.

Der Spiegel uncovered around 4,000 photos and videos taken by the so-called kill squad. The images released on Sunday were covered by a judicial order from a military court prohibiting their dissemination, and it was unclear how the magazine obtained them.

"Today Der Spiegel published photographs depicting actions repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States Army," the army said in a statement released by Colonel Thomas Collins....