Marine tape reaction sets Taliban fighters against commanders

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have been enraged by a video which shows U.S. marines urinating on three corpses, believed to be insurgents, and some say they do not understand their leadership's relatively measured response to the tape.

News of the clip spread fast across Afghanistan, even though only a minority of people have electricity and the internet is restricted to a tiny urban elite.

Radio can reach remote militants and villagers and mobile phones are used by many Afghans, on both sides of the war, for storing and sharing videos even in remote areas with little communications infrastructure.

"I heard from some friends about this shameful act of the U.S. forces but could not see it at first," said one militant who called himself Qari Babar, explaining that a Pashto-language radio broadcast first alerted him to the tape's existence.

The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, shows four Marines in camouflage combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them jokes: "Have a nice day, buddy." Another makes a lewd joke.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the video, describing the men's actions as "inhuman" and calling for an investigation. U.S. and NATO military commanders condemned the actions of the men, and Pentagon has acted quickly to respond to the video, in a bid to limit the fallout.

Although a Taliban spokesman criticized it last week, he said it would not harm nascent efforts to broker peace talks.

For some insurgents, their leadership's muted response to the Marines' actions was unwelcome, particularly after reports the Taliban had agreed to open a political office in Qatar to ease possible negotiation with the United States and allies.

"Our leaders overlooked this degrading and inhumane act of American soldiers because they are interested in peace talks," said Mullah Mohammad Gul, a local Taliban commander in southern Helmand province, where the video is believed to have been made.

"Our duty is to defend our sacred religion and our people and we will keep fighting, no matter what."

Insurgent fighters in other parts of the country said the video could undermine discipline and push foot soldiers to ignore orders from higher ranked fighters.

"Until now, we were following guidelines and principles laid down by our senior commanders for us to follow while fighting," said Babar, active in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.

Young insurgents might ignore orders in future, he added.

U.S. General John Allen, who commands international troops in Afghanistan, accused the Taliban's one-eyed leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, this week of having "lost all control" of his frontline fighters after several suicide bombings in the restive south killed almost 20 people, mostly civilians.

Babar said he watched the video with around 70 fighters, and said it shocked them even though previous cases of abuse by foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including the murder of innocent civilians, had been well publicized.

"Every one is now desperately trying to find U.S. soldiers to take revenge for the desecration of the bodies," he added.

HATE WILL GROW

Several commanders also thought the Marines' actions would also help bolster the group's standing with the rural Afghans they fight among.

"It helps us to win the support and sympathy of the Afghan people," Abdul Basit, who fights in eastern Khost province where insurgents have a strong presence, told Reuters.

"You see now the entire nation, even so many people in the government and armed forces, have turned against them because of the atrocities," Basit said.

Basit added that they had been advised by their leaders not to kill their prisoners and spies but after seeing the video, many of them might not control themselves in future.

In the southern town of Marjah, a part of Helmand that has seen heavy fighting and was the centre of a U.S.-led campaign to displace the Taliban in early 2010, another commander agreed.

"It is good that such video has emerged which showed Americans' inhumane acts," Mullah Abdullah told Reuters by satellite phone. He disagreed it would sap discipline, and instead saw a groundswell of greater support.

"From now on, hate against the foreign troops will grow in the hearts of every Muslim, especially in Afghanistan."

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR, writing by Emma Graham-Harrison)

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Arab reaction to operation mixed

The killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan made headlines across the Arab world.Posts on CNN Arabic's Facebook page suggest West has much to do to convince Arab world of its intentionsOne user hails bin Laden as "hero of this era", others condemn al Qaeda leader's actionsSome dispute whether bin Laden is really dead, call for proof

(CNN) -- The news of Osama bin Laden's killing may have been greeted by raucous celebrations and flag-waving in the U.S., but the reaction in other parts of the world has been very different.

Posts on CNN Arabic's Facebook page suggest the West has much left to do to convince many in the Arab world of its intentions.

The site's users hold a wide variety of opinions on bin Laden, from those who view him as a terrorist whose death should be welcomed, to those who see him as a martyr to be feted.

Sheikh Gamal Mohammed hails the al Qaeda leader as a Muslim figurehead, "the hero of this era", adding "he is indeed a martyr... he lived as a lion and died as a lion."

But Rubatabi Abdel Gadi, from Sudan, takes the opposite view, insisting that "a person like bin Laden has no relation or connection to Islam... by saying that he is a Muslim, his actions have caused more damage to Muslims than to non-Muslims."

Nada Ali offered her congratulations to those responsible for killing bin Laden: "Terrorists are a cancer that should be eliminated. Long live the heroes who took him out."

There has been no video or any kind of hard evidence to prove anything at all, and they threw his body into the sea: Sounds more to me like a Hollywood movie.
--CNN Arabic Facebook page user

As U.S. authorities debate whether to release images of bin Laden's body, the comments of some on the site suggest that even that may be insufficient to prove his death.

One poster, calling himself "Algeria Stand Up And Wake Up" and from Algeria, said: "I'm doubting the entire story for a lot of reasons, for example the picture circulating on the internet is a clear fake.

"There has been no video or any kind of hard evidence to prove anything at all, and finally they threw his body into the sea: Sounds more to me like a Hollywood movie."

While some of the more unusual views on the site include the suggestion that the world's most-wanted man never existed in the first place. Melhem Melhem, from Jordan, and Ahmed Shiha both claim there is no such person as bin Laden -- that he is nothing more than an American invention.

It's an opinion echoed in part by Hassan Gawad, from Iraq, who argues that the whole episode was one of U.S. propaganda.

"The United States manufactures all these tyrants for its own use and then whenever any of these made-in-USA terrorists turns his back to his maker they become international fugitives," he said.

"If it wasn't for bin Laden, America wouldn't have found a reason to invade Afghanistan and if it wasn't for someone like Saddam there wouldn't have been a reason to invade Iraq."

CNN Arabic's Facebook users are also debating whether bin Laden's death means the end of al Qaeda.

"I don't think so," wrote Khalid Hages. "A snake the size of bin Laden has more than one head and more than one tail.

"But we shouldn't forget the moral side of the game: The demoralization that his death will cause to his followers is disastrous."

CNN's Mariam Thabet contributed to this report.

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