Berlin: Germany ordered an investigation on Thursday into training given to its troops stationed abroad amid concerns that photos seeming to show soldiers desecrating a human skull in Afghanistan could damage its army's image.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung condemned the photographs printed in top-selling daily Bild, portraying servicemen in macabre and sometimes obscene poses with the skull.
His criticism echoed that of Chancellor Angela Merkel and came amid fears the images could endanger German troops.
''Our aim is that Bundeswehr soldiers, in particular when they are abroad, should communicate the values of our constitution and live by them,'' Jung told parliament, announcing a probe into the training and supervision of soldiers abroad.
Jung also confirmed that an investigation was under way into two serving and four former soldiers over the pictures, which were splashed across the front pages of Bild yesterday and today.
''We will pursue an appropriate penalty,'' Jung said.
The army launched the investigation after Bild printed five photographs, including one of an unidentified soldier clutching the skull next to his exposed penis.
A new picture of two soldiers placing a human skull on the front of their jeep was splashed across the paper's front page on Thursday under the headline: ''Desecration of the dead in Afghanistan.''
Other German newspapers expressed concern that the pictures could damage the army's image as it starts to flex its muscles beyond German borders for the first time in 60 years.
The scandal coincides with the presentation today to lawmakers of a new long-term national security policy which sees an increasingly important role for the Bundeswehr abroad.
''German soldiers pose in Afghanistan with a human skull and bring the entire mission into disrepute,'' daily Die Welt said. ''It is not the first scandal involving the Bundeswehr but it could be the one with the greatest consequences.''
The images were apparently taken more than three years ago during a routine tour around the Afghan capital Kabul.
Merkel said on Wednesday the photographs were repulsive, while Afghan Economy Minister Amin Farhang said the act should be condemned.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said today he did not think the photographs would make the situation worse for the 3,000 German troops in Afghanistan.
''It is naturally not good for the image of the Bundeswehr, nor for the image of NATO,'' he told Deutschlandfunk radio. ''But this is the exception and not the rule.''
Bild has not said how it knows the photos are genuine or how it obtained them. Yesterday, it quoted an unidentified army member as saying they were taken in the spring of 2003 and that the skull may have come from a mass grave.
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