Baghdad, January 16 (RHC)-- Shocking photos have been published showing U.S. Marines burning bodies of dead Iraqis in Fallujah in 2004. According to the website TMZ.com, researchers obtained a total of 41 pictures from Fallujah. "Two pictures show a Marine appearing to pour gasoline or some other flammable on the remains of what officials believe are two insurgents. Two other photos show the bodies on fire. You then see charred remains.”

The website says that "another photo shows a Marine crouched down next to a dead body and mugging for the camera. And still another picture shows a U.S. Marine rifling through the pocket of the pants on a corpse.”

The website said some of the photos are “too gruesome” to be published, adding that over a dozen bodies are seen in the photos and “some are covered with flies and one is being eaten by a dog.”

The website said it turned the photos it to the Pentagon last week. A U.S. Marine spokesman at the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Neil F. Murphy, said Wednesday the Marine Corps is investigating the circumstances depicted in the photos and attempting to identify the Marines shown. Murphy said the results will determine whether the Marine Corps launches an investigation into possible wrongdoing.

The United States used the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York as a pretext to attack Afghanistan in 2001. Two years later, the U.S. military also invaded Iraq, where conflicts left more than one million people dead. Thousands of U.S. occupation troops are still stationed in both countries, years after the ouster of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq.