Pentagon to investigate allegations that US soldiers burned bodies of Taliban fighters

The U.S. military and the Afghan government said Thursday they will investigate a TV report that claimed U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and taunted other Islamic militants. The U.S. military said it found the report ``repugnant.'' A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said the government has launched its own inquiry

Australia's SBS television network broadcast video that purportedly showed U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of the suspected Taliban fighters in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

In the video, which was seen by the AP, two soldiers who spoke with American accents later broadcast taunting messages that the SBS said targeted the village, which was believed to be harboring Taliban soldiers.

Dupont said the soldiers responsible for the loudspeaker broadcasts were part of a U.S. Army psychological operations unit. The U.S. military said the Army Criminal Investigation Division had opened an investigation into alleged misconduct that included ``the burning of dead enemy combatant bodies under inappropriate circumstances.''

Islamic clerics warned protests may break out, though there was no sign of unrest by Thursday afternoon. The last anti-American riots were in May and killed 15 people.

According to a transcript of the television program, the broadcast by soldiers from the psychological operations unit called the Taliban ``cowardly dogs.'' A.M.