ROBERT BALES, the US army staff sergeant suspected of killing at least 16 Afghan civilians, is “confused” and doesn’t recall some details of the alleged assault, the soldier’s attorney has said.
“He doesn’t remember everything about the events in question,” said John Henry Browne, a Seattle lawyer, after meeting Sgt Bales yesterday at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, prison where he is being held. “That doesn’t mean he has amnesia.”
Women and children were among the victims in the March 11th shootings that exacerbated tensions between the US and Afghanistan and threaten to undermine support for President Barack Obama’s plans to keep troops there until 2014.
US forces in Afghanistan will conduct an administrative investigation of events preceding the killings, according to Gen John Allen, the commander in Afghanistan for the US and Nato.
“There are no eyewitnesses, as far as we know, that the government has at the scene of the incident,” said Mr Browne.
– (Bloomberg)