Those who have seen the photos say they are grisly: soldiers beside newly killed bodies, decaying corpses and severed fingers.
The dozens of photos, described in interviews and in e-mails and military documents obtained by The Associated Press, were seized by Army investigators and are a crucial part of the case against five soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians this year.
Troops allegedly shared the photos by e-mail and thumb drive-like electronic trading cards. Now 60 to 70 are being kept tightly shielded amid fears they could provoke anti-American violence.
Maj. Kathleen Turner, a spokeswoman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where the accused soldiers are stationed, acknowledged that the images are “highly sensitive.”
Some of the photos pertain to those killings. Others may have been of insurgents killed in battle, according to lawyers involved in the case.
Among the most gruesome allegations is that some of the soldiers kept fingers from the bodies of Afghans they killed as war trophies.
Four members of the unit – two of whom are charged in the killings – have been accused of wrongfully possessing images of human casualties, and one is charged with trying to impede an investigation by having someone erase evidence from a hard drive.
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