TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
US soldier says no reason for Afghan massacre
The U
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
T
he U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, many of them women and children who were asleep in their villages, pleaded guilty to murder and acknowledged that there was "not a good reason in this world" for his actions.
Robert Bales' plea Wednesday ensures that he will avoid the death penalty for the nighttime slayings that so inflamed tensions with Afghans that the U.S. military briefly suspended combat operations there.
Prosecutors say Bales slipped away before dawn on March 11, 2012, from his base in Kandahar Province. Armed with a 9 mm pistol and an M-4 rifle equipped with a grenade launcher, he attacked a village of mud-walled compounds called Alkozai, then returned and woke up a fellow soldier to tell him about it.
The soldier didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep. Bales then left to attack a second village known as Najiban.
Relatives of the dead were outraged at the idea that Bales could escape execution when they spoke to The Associated Press in April.
"A prison sentence doesn't mean anything," said Said Jan, whose wife and three other relatives were killed. "I know we have no power now. But I will become stronger, and if he does not hang, I will have my revenge."
A jury will decide in August whether Bales is sentenced to life with or without the possibility of parole.
