Marine Snipers Pose With Nazi Flag In Photo

(NewsCore) - The US Marine Corps confirmed Thursday that members of a sniper team in Afghanistan were photographed with a Nazi flag.

The picture appeared on the internet and features a Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based scout sniper team that deployed to Sangin province in 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported.

An investigation has begun into the matter. It comes as the Marine Corps also probes a highly controversial incident in which Marines from Camp Lejune in North Carolina were videoed urinating on dead Taliban fighters.

In the photo, the 10 snipers are posing with their rifles while standing and kneeling in front of both a US flag and another flag carrying the logo of the Nazi Schutzstaffel, better known as the SS -- which carried out many of Adolf Hitler's worst crimes against humanity, under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler.

The group had been "addressed" in relation to the photograph, Marine Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Stewart Upton said.

A Marine Corps statement said, "Those involved acknowledged that the symbol could be misinterpreted and is not in keeping with our Marine Corps ethos and values."

There has been a call for the 10 to face a court martial, by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

"We've seen everything, but this literally astonishes us," MRFF president Michael Weinstein said. "This is a felony; this is absolutely horrible in the worst degree."

Read more: Los Angeles Times