Afghans slam 'lenient' US military verdicts

"We think the punishments given to those who have severely violated human rights are very light and unexpectedly lenient," said President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Karim Rahimi. "They should have been given severe punishments."

The two soldiers were tried in a US military court in Texas, leading to the first judicial sentences handed to any American soldier for prisoner abuse in Afghanistan since 2001.

"We're disappointed," Rahimi said.

The courts-martial occurred in the past few weeks at Fort Bliss in Texas, where the soldiers were charged in relation to the deaths of two Afghans in detention at Bagram, the main US base in Afghanistan, in late 2002.