By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The German Defense Ministry said Monday 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.
He said the army was investigating the incident, which was recorded in an Internet video, and would probably complete the probe in two to four weeks.
A video of the army instructor telling the soldier to shoot and yell obscenities while thinking of African-Americans in the Bronx aired on German national television Saturday and prompted calls for an apology by the New York City borough's president.
The video shows an instructor and a soldier in camouflage uniforms in a forest. The instructor tells the soldier, "You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways. ... Act."