WASHINGTON: The White House condemned as "reprehensible" Wednesday photographs showing US soldiers with the mangled remains of suspected Taliban suicide bombers in Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House also was "very disappointed" by the decision of the Los Angeles Times to publish them.
Echoing condemnatory statements earlier in the day by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Carney said the photos did not "in any way represent the standards" expected from the US military.
The unsettling photographs, which appear on the Times' website, showed troops posing in one image with a severed hand and in another with disembodied legs.
The Times reported that the images were taken during more than one occasion over the course of 2010.
The incident is the latest in a series of scandals that has strained US-Afghan ties. (AFP)