American soldiers abusing the bodies of Afghan civilians they have killed in cold blood.

The timing could not have been worse. Just as the West seeks to persuade a sceptical Arab world that it has the moral authority to intervene in Libya, nauseating images have appeared of American soldiers abusing the bodies of Afghan civilians they have killed in cold blood.

The photographs, leaked to Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine and published on Monday, show U.S. servicemen posing over a bloodied, half-naked body, and holding up the head of the dead man by grabbing his hair and turning his face to the camera as if he were a hunting trophy. 

No matter that the U.S. Army has apologised for the ‘repugnant’ pictures. No matter it insists this is an isolated incident and the twisted souvenir snaps are the work of a rogue Army unit, five of whose members have been charged with murder.