CORPORATE media came under fire today over its constant smearing of Jeremy Corbyn after footage emerged of British troops using the Labour leader’s picture for target practice.

The army confirmed it was investigating the incident of soldiers shooting at his image in a video shared on social media, which was described by a Labour spokesman as “alarming and unacceptable.”

Video has emerged of soldiers on a shooting range in Kabul firing at a target of Jeremy Corbyn. MOD confirms it as legit: pic.twitter.com/qOr84Aiivj

— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) April 3, 2019

Footage captured this week in Kabul, Afghanistan, shows four soldiers from 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment using the Labour leader’s picture for target practice on a Simunition range.

Lined up in a row, they are seen firing handguns before the camera turns to show a large picture of Mr Corbyn with small coloured wax pellets targeted at his face.

It comes after John Murphy, 31, was jailed for 28 days last month for hitting Mr Corbyn on the back of his head with an egg while inside Finsbury Park Mosque.

Award-winning media watch group Media Lens said that the “entire mainstream media system has been waging a relentless, fanatical smear campaign demonising Corbyn.”

It referred to the Daily Mail having mocked up a picture of Mr Corbyn in a coffin with the headline: “Labour must KILL vampire Jezza.” It noted that after the newspaper received a backlash, it had changed the word “kill” to “dump” on the online version.

Media Lens warned that it was not just the right-wing press that were complicit, as the Independent and the BBC had also stoked the fire in portraying him as a security threat.

It pointed to Independent articles claiming that the British army could “stage [a] mutiny” under a Corbyn-led government and also noted an anonymous general’s comment that “generals would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of the UK.”

Media Lens added that BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg was broadcast “wagging a finger at Corbyn” and saying “do you acknowledge there is a risk that it looks to voters like you would put your own principles ahead of the protection of this country?”

Sky News, in reporting the target practice, explicitly linked the footage of the soldiers shooting at Mr Corbyn’s picture to allegations from Tories that he would threaten national security.

The broadcaster also interviewed Tory MP Mark Harper who said that Mr Corbyn sided with Russia over the apparent attack on the Skripals in Salisbury – an allegation based on Mr Corbyn having asked for evidence before endorsing action against Russia.

Media Lens, which won the 2007 Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award, tweeted: “Let’s be clear, they learned this hatred of Corbyn from a single source – corporate media.

“It’s astonishing how journalists have turned this honest, compassionate, thoroughly decent politician into a hate figure.”

Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade Nick Perry said the army was conducting a full investigation, is keen to get to the bottom of the incident and is “obviously taking this extremely seriously.”

However, media critic and journalist Jonathan Cook suggested that the investigation could be compromised as the army is being led by “a general who explained to the Times that he and his colleagues would make sure Corbyn was never allowed to reach No 10.”

Prime Minister Theresa May’s official spokesman described the soldiers’ behaviour as “unacceptable” and said that Ms May was aware of the video’s content but had not seen it.