Two US Marines will be court-martialed to face criminal charges over an incident in 2011 wherein several soldiers urinated on the dead bodies of murdered Afghans and distributed a video of the incident on the internet.

The two marines, Staff Sergeants Joseph W. Chamblin and Edward W. Deptola, will be the first to face criminal charges for the incident. Three other Marines plead guilty to the incident last month, but escaped serious charges. They were instead disciplined within the military, which included reduction in rank and extra duties. The light sentencing stirred further anger over the actions, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai called "inhuman."

Chamblin and Deptola now also facecharges for failing to supervise junior Marines, and for "posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties," the Marine Corps said.