Photos surfaced Wednesday that appeared to show U.S. military personnel posing with corpses of insurgents in Afghanistan. U.S. military officials condemned the photos and have said an investigation has begun, according to multiple reports. 

Photo published by the L.A. Times (blurring by CNN)

The two pictures taken in 2010, published by the Los Angeles Times, were a small selection of 18 images provided by a soldier who wanted to highlight "the safety risk of a breakdown in leadership and discipline," according to the paper. 

The images depicted Army soldiers posing with dismembered bodies of insurgent bombers. 

This is the latest incident of U.S. military personnel desecrating enemy corpses since a video earlier this year showed U.S. troops urinating on dead Afghan bodies. 

The recent accidental burning of Korans at a Nato air base and the killing of 17 Afghan civilians allegedly by a U.S. soldier, are among the events that have lately inflamed tensions in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has been waging war for over a decade.  

"These images by no means represent the values or professionalism of the vast majority of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan today," said Pentagon spokesman George Little, according to CNN.

Little also said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was "disappointed" that the L.A. Times published the photos. 

The Times published the photos to "fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan," said LA Times editor Davan Maharaj, according to AFP.

Posing with the dead violates the Geneva Conventions. 

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