KANDAHAR, Nov 26: The US military admitted on Saturday that its soldiers in Afghanistan had burned the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters and taunted the guerillas about it, but had not meant it as a desecration.

The US military said an investigation into the incident concluded the soldiers had burned the bodies for ‘hygienic reasons’ and said it would reprimand two non-commissioned officers for calling out taunts about it over a loudspeaker.

“Our investigation found there was no intent to desecrate the remains, but only to dispose them for hygienic reasons,” US-led forces operational commander, Maj Gen Jason Kamiya said.

The investigation stems from footage shown on Australian television in a report which says the pictures show US soldiers watching as flames lick two charred corpses in the hills above the village of Gondaz, north of Kandahar.

It also shows two US soldiers reading messages they said had been broadcast over loudspeakers as propaganda.

“You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be,” read one soldier identified as psyops specialist Sgt Jim Baker.

The military said the soldiers implicated in the burning incident, would face disciplinary action and that the two junior officers who ordered the burning would be reprimanded for showing a lack of cultural and religious understanding.

The incident has caused anger among Afghans already upset with US-led forces over accusations of mistreating prisoners and using heavy-handed tactics to hunt down the Taliban and members of Al Qaeda.

This latest incident comes amid rising violence in which more than 1,100 people, most of them militants, but also nearly 60 US soldiers, have died in the Taliban-led resistance this year in the country, the bloodiest since the overthrow of the Taliban’s government in 2001.

POLICEMEN DISAPPEAR: Four Afghan policemen went missing on Saturday after suspected Taliban attacked a government building near the Afghan capital, the interior ministry said.

The attack took place in the early hours of Saturday in Logar province just south of Kabul, said interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai.

“One police officer and three policemen are missing in Logar Chark district,” he said. The building, housing local administration offices, was damaged in the attack. He blamed the “enemies of Afghanistan” — a term used by officials for Taliban loyalists.

It was unclear if the four men had been killed or kidnapped.—Agencies