US charges single GI for Afghan carnage

“The charges allege that, on or about March 11, 2012, Staff Sergeant [Robert] Bales did, with premeditation, murder 17 Afghan civilians and assaulted and attempted to murder six other civilians,” said a Friday statement by US armed forces in Afghanistan.

This is while witnesses as well as an Afghan fact-finding mission say up to 20 soldiers were involved in the slaughter of “16” Afghan civilians in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, believed to be the deadliest by US-led soldiers during the decade-plus-long occupation of Afghanistan.

It is still unclear where the extra count of murder came from, as on Friday Afghan officials restated that the number of the dead was 16.

The news came after Bales was transferred to a prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, despite calls by the furious families of the victims for the proceedings to be held in Afghanistan.

Women and children sleeping in their homes were the main victims of the overnight massacre that occurred on March 11 in two villages in Kandahar’s Panjwaii district. Some of the victims’ bodies were burnt by the US soldiers.

The murderous act has sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan and heavily strained relations between Kabul and Washington.

ASH/GHN/MA

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