U.S. soldier killing Afghan civilians faces criminal charges

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　　The charges against the U.S. soldier allege³ that,on or about March 11, Bales with premeditation did murder 17 Afghan civilians and assaulted and attempted to murder six other civilians at or near the Belambey army base, Panjwai district of south Afghanistan 's Kandahar province, the U.S. military said in a mid-night statement.

　　Previously⁴, Afghan officials in Kabul and local villagers in Panjwai believed that 16 civilians including nine children and three women were killed in the bloody⁵ pre-dawn shooting.

　　The shooting spree has sparked a strong anti-American fury in Afghanistan. Despite Afghans' strong demand that the suspect be tried publicly in the country, the U.S. side transferred the trouble-making soldier back to the United States out of "legal considerations."

　　The U.S. army statement said that Bales has been assigned to 2nd Battalion⁶, 3rd Infantry⁷ Regiment⁸ (Rear) (Provisional), headquartered at Joint⁹ Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, and currently he is in pre-trial confinement¹⁰ at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

　　The charges could lead to the death penalty for the 38-year-old U.S. soldier in the massacre¹¹ of Afghan civilians, said the press release. "Under the UCMJ, the maximum possible punishment for a premeditated murder conviction is a dishonorable discharge from the Armed Forces, reduction to the lowest enlisted¹² grade, total forfeiture¹³ of pay and allowances, and death (with a mandatory¹⁴ minimum sentence of imprisonment¹⁵ for life with eligibility¹⁶ for parole)," it said. The statement did not give details about the killings¹⁸ or the ongoing¹⁹ investigations²⁰. It remains²¹ unclear about the motive²² of the killing¹⁷ but some U.S. officials said the killer²³ soldier was suffering a mental breakdown²⁴.

　　A week ago, however, a probe team of the Afghan parliament after visiting the villages said that more than a dozen U.S. soldiers had been involved in the Kandahar killing, claiming that two groups of U.S. soldiers totaling 15 to 20 troops carried out the planned attack with air support.

　　The shooting incident further strained the wary²⁵ ties between Washington and Kabul, which has already been clouded by other recent incidents including the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base in Afghanistan in February and reports of U.S. service members urinating on the corpses²⁶ of Taliban soldiers in January.

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