US military sources have confirmed the identity of some the marines allegedly responsible for a video which shows them urinating on the bodies of three dead Afghans.
Defence officials accepted the authenticity of the video, which emerged on the internet this week.
The Pentagon has been scrambling to contain the fallout from the damaging footage, and senior government members, including secretary of state Hillary Clinton, have condemned the incident as deplorable.
Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan reports from Washington DC.