US troops are reported to have burned the bodies of two suspected Taliban militants killed in southern Afghanistan and then broadcast insults to taunt enemy fighters.
The Australian channel SBS's Dateline programme showed footage of the burning corpses as US soldiers stood in the background and replayed broadcasts of inflammatory messages sent by US troops to villagers.
The programme claimed the troops said they burned the corpses for health reasons after they had been left out in the open for more than 24 hours.
The burning of the corpses, which contravenes the Geneva Convention, was later used by a psychological operations unit of the US military to insult locals and encourage them to cooperate with coalition troops.
The suspected Taliban deaths occurred during an ambush of a US patrol, in which one American and one Afghan army soldier were killed. The clash took place before Afghanistan's parliamentary elections last month.
US officials used the burning of the bodies - a practice offensive to Muslims, who bury their dead within 24 hours - to taunt villagers suspected of harbouring insurgents.
The Geneva Convention requires soldiers to dispose of war dead in an honourable fashion and 'if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged'.
