BERLIN — It wasn’t the best day for the picture of a German soldier simulating oral sex with a skull to have appeared in the nation’s biggest newspaper.

The outrage yesterday about photographs of German troops posing with a skull in Afghanistan swept through Parliament just as Chancellor Merkel’s administration announced a major restructuring of the military to handle increased international missions.

The five pictures appeared in Bild under the headline: “German Soldiers Desecrate a Dead Person.” They show the skull in various positions, including mounted on a jeep and held near the waist of a soldier with his fatigues unzipped. The newspaper blocked out the troops’ faces. Editors reported that the skull might be the remains of a villager pulled from a mass grave or a Soviet soldier killed during Afghanistan’s occupation in the 1980s.

Bild is known for titillating scoops. However, the photographs, believed to have been taken about two years ago, disturbed a nation whose Nazi past has made many Germans wary of deploying their military to foreign lands. The government was concerned that the pictures could be used by Taliban and other Islamic militants to instigate a backlash against the 2,800 German troops serving in Afghanistan.

“It is clear and unambiguous that such behavior on the part of German soldiers absolutely cannot be tolerated,” Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said. “These pictures arouse repugnance and horror.” He told reporters that an investigation by the ministry could end in “disciplinary and even criminal measures” for members of the unit stationed near Kabul.

Military officials said the matter had been referred to prosecutors. Two soldiers in the pictures, including one who earlier had left the army, are being questioned. Desecrating the dead can carry a three-year prison sentence in Germany.

The publicity is an embarrassment for the army, which since the end of World War II has stressed to its recruits that they are accountable for their actions.

The head of an organization representing German soldiers, Bernhard Gertz, called the photos “absolutely disgusting … We can’t use such people in our army.”

He added that the “terrorist enemy will, of course, exploit such things and say, ‘Look, that’s how the nonbelievers are dealing with us.'”

Germany has about 250,000 military personnel, including about 55,000 conscripts. More than 9,000 soldiers and sailors are stationed in peacekeeping missions in Lebanon, Kosovo province, and other regions. Germany plans to reduce its troop contingent in Afghanistan to 1,800. Members of the multinational forces are urging Germany to rotate its units out of the relatively calm north to the south, where the Taliban and insurgents are growing stronger.

The military restructuring announced yesterday by Mrs. Merkel’s government is a response to increasing danger from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The aim is to prepare the armed forces to react to terror threats at home and to expand international missions, including peacekeeping and patrolling the seas. The plan is expected to complicate the debate over whether Germany — like some of its European neighbors — should break the tradition of mandatory military service.