Military artifacts and personal possessions left by the British troops in the 19th century during the Battle of Maiwand were stolen by the US troops in Afghanistan in 2009. The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed on Monday that US troops may have broken international law after many of the items from the Maiwand Battle were sold to collectors and turned up online. The announcement made headlines in the British newspapers. Evidence of items being looted has now been presented to the Pentagon by the MoD. The battle was one of the bloodiest conflicts in history after 969 British and Indian soldiers were killed as they tried to push back against thousands of tribesmen. Historical records show that bodies were buried soon after the bloodshed along with any other possessions that had not already been looted by Afghans. But the remains were taken from the ground after a large force of US soldiers as they waged in conflict with the Taliban. A US soldier is understood to have sent historical war artifacts back home. One collector confirmed they had purchased items, such as binoculars, coins, rifle parts and watch chains, from a soldier who dug up the items. The items were posted to the Victorian War Forum website and captioned as follows: "Sent to me by my friends son who is currently serving with the 1st Infantry Regiment." Collectables from battles such as Maiwand, which featured in Sherlock Holmes novels, are more valuable because of their history. Major Chris Green, a former officer in the London Regiment who fought near the famous Maiwand battle in 2012, said: Taking possessions from belonging to dead British soldiers from a battlefield...for personal gain is wrong."