US soldiers 'kept dead body parts as trophies'

The infantry soldiers from the 5th Stryker Brigade based in Washington state were deployed to Kandahar province a year ago

The murders occurred between January and March, according to charges by army prosecutors made public this week.

Five soldiers were charged in June with the murder of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar province.

The men apparently formed a secret "kill team" that blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random for sport and collected body parts as trophies between January and March this year.

New charges disclosed to the media this week show seven others have also been charged in the case and face accusations that include conspiracy to cover up the crime.

An army spokeswoman said four of the soldiers have been charged for keeping body parts, including finger bones, a skull, leg bones and a human tooth.

Four years ago German tabloid Bild published photos showing German soldiers in Afghanistan who had placed a skull onto the hood of a military vehicle, a soldier pressing his naked genitalia against a skull and soldiers using the remnants of skulls as decorations.

US peace group Codepink spokeswoman Medea Benjamin pointed out that occupation troops have committed abuses "throughout these nine years of war, including abuses that go to very high levels of torture, detention and of course indefinite detention," referring to the US concentration camp in the Bagram airbase.

Ms Benjamin charged that before US soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan "they are trained to think of the people there as less-than-equal human beings."