The Pentagon, under pressure from open-government advocates, released Thursday nearly 300 photos of US troops killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts.

Most of the photographs showed soldiers carrying or saluting flag-draped coffins. Some showed soldiers putting coffins onto or taking them off military cargo aircraft.

Pentagon had previously refused to allow images of fallen soldiers to be released or their caskets to be photographed, saying its policy was implemented out of respect for the families of those killed.

Critics said the photos are public records and that by not allowing them to be shown, the Pentagon is preventing people from seeing the human cost of war.

A group of open-government advocates sued the Pentagon last year in federal court for failing to make those photos public.