Private Nguyen Van Quang, 20, was dismissed from his unit in Gia Lai province in central Vietnam for torturing the monkeys, identified as endangered grey-shanked douc langurs, Dan Tri newspaper said.

Quang posted a dozen photos on July 16 showing him putting a cigarette into the mouth of a pregnant langur and then boiling her alive. The images sparked thousands of angry comments online.

A military investigation found Quang and two other soldiers, both of whom received official warnings for their part in the incident, bought the two langurs from a village in Kon Tum province where they were stationed.

The army arrested a 37-year-old villager and was looking for two more on suspicion of catching and selling the monkeys, the Voice of Vietnam state-run radio broadcaster said.

The langurs are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Vietnam has put the monkeys on its own endangered list and made it illegal to hunt them.