The American soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians in their homes has been charged with premeditated murder and could face the death penalty.
The American soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians in their homes has been charged with premeditated murder and could face the death penalty.
US Army Staff Sgt Robert Bales was charged on Friday with 17 counts of premeditated murder, a capital offence.
The 38-year-old soldier is accused of walking off a US military base with his 9mm pistol and M-4 rifle, which was outfitted with a grenade launcher, before dawn on March 11, killing nine Afghan children and eight adults, then burning some of the bodies.
It was the worst allegation of civilian killings by an American and has severely strained US-Afghan ties at a critical time in the decade-old war.
Six other Afghans - a man, a woman and four children - were wounded in Panjwai district of Kandahar province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban. Bales also was charged with six counts of attempted murder and six counts of assault in those cases, according to Col Gary Kolb, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.
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