Racist video incident 'absolutely unacceptable'

The German Defense Ministry said yesterday that an incident in which a soldier was told to imagine facing hostile blacks in the Bronx while firing a machine gun was "absolutely unacceptable."

"This behavior is absolutely unacceptable and contradicts the training standards of the German army," Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said at a government press conference.

He said the army was investigating the incident, recorded in an Internet video, and would probably complete the probe in two to four weeks.