KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- An investigation has been launched after two British soldiers allegedly abused two children while being deployed in Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday. The Afghan government and the Taliban have condemned the news.

The two soldiers are alleged to have filmed, on multiple occasions, a young boy and a 10-year-old girl as they forced them to touch their private parts through their clothes. The soldiers, who were in full uniform, later showed the footage to other soldiers on their laptops.

After receiving complaints from other soldiers, a sergeant and a private in the Mercian Battle Group were arrested by the military police. The UK Royal Military Police is investigating the allegations and has seized a number of laptops.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it is aware of the investigation, but gave no other details. It said allegations of this nature are taken 'very seriously' and said the investigation will determine the 'validity of the behavior in question.'

"We expect members of all ISAF troop-contributing nations to adhere to the highest standards of military service," said Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, an ISAF spokesman. "An investigation has been launched, and if a service member is found to have committed an offense, or behaved in a manner not in keeping with the appropriate moral standards expected of them, they will be dealt with appropriately through the respective nation's military judicial system."

The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai said it is 'deeply disturbed' by the reports and strongly condemned the 'immoral act'. "The government of Afghanistan is immensely disgusted by the rise in recent incidents of immoral nature among foreign soldiers that clearly undermine public confidence and the Afghan people's cooperation with foreign troops," a statement said.

The presidential office asked the British government to launch an immediate investigation into the allegations and to apply the 'necessary punishment' to those involved in the act.

A Taliban spokesperson also condemned the allegations on Thursday. "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) denounces the shameless act of occupation soldiers as a standard of their morality," the spokesman said.

The latest allegations come just a week after a controversial video was uploaded to the Internet, showing four U.S. Marines, uniformed and equipped with combat gear, urinating on the bodies of three people, believed to be dead Taliban fighters. It also comes less than two weeks after the Afghan government claimed U.S. forces 'abused and tortured' prisoners at Afghanistan's main prison, Bagram.

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