THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A US soldier will be charged with 17 counts of murder over the killings of civilians in a rampage in southern Afghanistan, a US official said on Thursday.
The official, confirming the murder charges on condition of anonymity, also said Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales would be charged with six counts of assault and attempted murder.
Bales, 38, is alleged to have walked out of his base in the southern province of Kandahar under cover of darkness March 11 and killed 17 people in two nearby villages, including women and children, and burning some of their bodies. He later returned to his base and gave himself up.
The charges raise by one the number of deaths reported immediately after the atrocity, which plunged relations between the United States and Afghanistan to their lowest point in a decade of war. » | Friday, March 23, 2012
