Afghanistan Embassy Guards Ousted in Sex Scandal

Private contractor canned as investigation continues

Eight guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan have been fired and two more resigned amid a sexual scandal.

All of the ousted guards appeared in photographs that surfaced this week showing guards and supervisors undressed and boozing it up at embassy parties. The 10 men left the country on Friday, the statement said.

The guards were employees of ArmorGroup North America, a private contractor which has been dropped. The embassy also said that a team from the Office of the Inspector General had arrived in the Afghan capital, where it would conduct an investigation.

The scandal surfaced this week when the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based independent watchdog group, said that guards were subjected to abuse, threats and hazing by supervisors and that a "Lord of the Flies" environment prevailed at the  guard's living quarters.

On Thursday, a State Department spokesman said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was "genuinely offended" by the reports of misconduct.

Get more: MSNBC

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