U.S. soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians 'was trained sniper who suffered traumatic brain injury when his Humvee flipped in Iraq'
- Father-of-two 'had trouble reintegrating after last tour of Iraq'
- Attack took place while families were sleeping after sergeant 'sneaked off base wearing night-vision goggles'
- Witness, 26, watched 'soldier take up position and shoot his father'
- Taliban vows to avenge deaths, saying more than one soldier involved
- Shooter identified as Army staff sergeant from Fort Lewis, Washington
- Nine children and three women among those reported dead
The U.S. soldier who killed 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children, had suffered a traumatic brain injury when his vehicle over-turned on a previous tour of Iraq but was cleared for active service, it was revealed today.
The father-of-two, 38, who has not been named, was today in U.S. custody, accused of killing the civilians in their homes on Saturday night and then burning some of the corpses - 11 victims were members of the same family.
Military officials said that the soldier was trained as a sniper after he had undergone mental health screening and passed in 2008.
The Army sergeant was believed to have been having marital problems and had trouble reintegrating to society following his last tour of Iraq - but had 'worked through' his issues.
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Disbelief: Two grief-stricken Afghan men look into the van where the body of a badly burned child lays, wrapped in a blue blanket
TODAY'S POLL
The soldier, stationed in Kandahar, reportedly sneaked off the U.S. base in the middle of the night wearing night-vision goggles and entered three Afghan family homes at 3am and began shooting.
Relatives of the dead said the soldier then 'poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them.'
After the alleged shooting spree, it is believed that the soldier returned to base and handed himself in. The soldier's motives were unknown but he had got himself a lawyer. '
There was still little known about the shooter. It was reported that he was on his fourth deployment in ten years, having completed three tours of Iraq. This was his first time in Afghanistan, where he'd been since December 3.
An official told ABC News that the soldier has suffered a mild traumatic brain injury in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident.
Horrific: The bodies of an elderly Afghan man and a child killed in the Alkozai village of Panjwayi district are shown wrapped in blankets
The soldier was from a Stryker brigade and received his assignment to a village stability program less than six weeks ago, a congressional source said today. He had been based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.
The source said the soldier was attached on February 1 to the village stability program in Belambai, half a mile from one of the villages where the fatal shootings took place.
The soldier was in pretrial confinement as Army officials reviewed his complete deployment and medical history.
The village stability operations are part of NATO's efforts to transition out of Afghanistan. They pair special operations troops with local villagers chosen by village elders to become essentially a sanctioned, armed neighborhood watch.
An Afghan youth relived today the harrowing scene he has witnessed in his home at the weekend. He explained that he watched as a lone soldier crouched down and shot his father in the thigh as he emerged from a bedroom in the middle of the night.
Tears of grief: An Afghan youth mourns for his relatives, who were allegedly killed by the U.S. service member
Mohammad Zahir, 26, said: 'He was walking around taking up positions in the house - in two or three places like he was searching. He was on his knees when he shot my father in the thigh.'
The young man's father was wounded but survived.
Even before the shootings, anti-American feeling had reached boiling point in Afghanistan after U.S. troops burned Qurans last month on an American base. The torchings came to light soon after a video allegedly showing four Marines urinating on Taliban corpses was posted on the Internet in January.
Mr Zahir described the scene that unfolded when the assailant came to his house before dawn.
He said: 'I heard a gunshot. When I came out of my room, somebody entered our house. He was in a NATO forces uniform. I didn't see his face because it was dark.'
He said he quickly went into another room in the house, where animals were penned.
Watchful eye: Afghan soldiers stand guard outside the houses where 16 civilians were shot dead by a U.S. soldier
He added: 'After that, I saw him moving to different areas of the house - like he was searching.'
His father, unarmed, then took a few steps out of his bedroom door.
'He was not holding anything - not even a cup of tea,' Zahir said. The soldier then shot his father.
'My mother was pulling my father into the room. I put a cloth on his wound.'
After the gunman left, Zahir said he heard gunshots near the house again. He stayed in hiding for a few minutes to make sure the shooter had gone.
The suspect is a staff sergeant who has been in the military for 11 years. He is married with two children. He has served three tours in Iraq and began his first deployment to Afghanistan in December, according to a senior U.S. official. He is believed to have acted alone.
The main responsibility of the soldier, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, was to help protect the forces stationed at the small combat outpost, said Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, another spokesman for the coalition.
Tragedy: Locals people gather outside the houses where 17 civilians were murdered by a U.S. soldier in a horrific house-to-house killing spree
The unnamed soldier attacked two small villages very close to his base in the southern Kandahar province. An enraged Hamid Karzai called it 'an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians' that cannot be forgiven.
Last Friday, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding about the transfer of Afghan detainees to Afghan control - a key step toward an eventual strategic partnership to govern U.S. forces in the country.
In Afghanistan's parliament today, however, lawmakers called for a halt to negotiations on the strategic partnership document until it is clear that the soldier behind the shooting rampage would face justice in Afghan courts.
'We said to Karzai: If you sign that document, you are betraying your country,' said Shikiba Ashimi, a parliamentarian from Kandahar.
High alert: American soldiers keep watch at the entrance of a military base near Alkozai village following the shooting of Afghan civilians, after which the Afghan Taliban vowed revenge
'The U.S. should be very careful. It is sabotaging the atmosphere of this strategic partnership.'
Under the Military Technical Agreement between Afghanistan and the U.S., if legal proceedings have to be carried out regarding any wrongdoing by a service member, it will be handled under U.S. military law.
Tensions between Afghanistan and the U.S. escalated last month after the Quran burnings were revealed. President Barack Obama said the burnings were a mistake and apologized.
The public response to the shootings so far has been calmer than the six days of violent protests and clashes that erupted after Qurans were burned at Bagram Air Field. There were no signs of protests taking place today.
However NATO troops in Afghanistan were on high alert after the Taliban vowed to avenge the deaths.
Military officials were investigating the incident and working to discover what made the soldier snap to such extremes that he would embark on a killing mission.
Aftermath: Families gather in the Panjwayi district hours after the rogue U.S. soldier opened fire on innocents in three houses, killing 16 people, including nine children
Two U.S. defense officials said an investigation has been started by the Army Criminal Investigation Division.
With tensions rising in the region, U.S. and British officials said they were now braced for a backlash as the Taliban claimed the killings were the work of 'more than one soldier'.
Militants condemned the 'blood-soaked and inhumane crime' by 'sick-minded American savages' on its website and vowed to take revenge 'for every single martyr with the help of Allah'.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said the gunman left the base in Panjwai district and walked about one mile (1,800 meters) to Balandi village.
Villagers described how they cowered in fear around 3 am as gunshots rang out and the soldier roamed from house to house, firing on those inside. They said he entered three homes in all and set fire to some of the bodies after he killed them.
Eleven of the 12 civilians killed in Balandi were from the same family. The remaining victim was a neighbor.
Bloody Sunday: Afghan soldiers and villagers congregate outside the houses where 17 civilians were killed by a U.S. soldier
From Balandi, the gunman walked roughly one mile to the village of Alkozai, which was only about 500 meters from the American military base. There the gunman killed four people in one house and then moved to Zahir's house, where he shot his father in the leg.
Some Afghan officials and local villagers expressed doubt that a single U.S. soldier could have carried out all the killings and burned the bodies afterward.
'It is not possible for only one American soldier to come out of his base, kill a number of people far away, burn the bodies, go to another house and kill civilians there, then walk at least 2 kilometers and enter another house, kill civilians and burn them,' said Abdul Rahim Ayubi, a lawmaker from Kandahar province who visited the area today.
Some villagers also told officials there were multiple soldiers and heard shooting from different directions. But many others said they only saw a single soldier.
NATO insisted there was only one gunman.
Fort Lewis-McChord is about 45 miles south of Seattle and home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel.
A former soldier out of Fort Lewis shot and injured a Salt Lake City police officer in 2010, and on January 1, a 24-year-old Iraq War veteran shot and killed a Mount Rainier National Park ranger.
Four Lewis-McChord soldiers were convicted in the deliberate thrill killings of three Afghan civilians in 2010. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes called it 'the most troubled base in the military' that year.
TALIBAN DOUBTS 'BLOOD-SOAKED' CRIME WORK OF ONE SOLDIER
The Taliban posted on its website today that 'American savages' committed the 'blood-soaked and inhumane crime'.
It also expressed doubt that a single soldier could have carried out the shootings in houses over a mile apart.
Villagers told Afghan officials they heard shots being fired from several directions.
Abdul Rahim Ayubi, a lawmaker from Kandahar province, said the distance between the houses raised questions about how a single soldier could have carried out all of the shootings.
He said: 'It is not possible for only one American soldier to come out of his base, kill a number of people far away, burn the bodies, go to another house and kill civilians there, then walk at least 2 kilometers and enter another house, kill civilians and burn them.'
Abdul Ghani, a local councilman in Panjwai district, said local villagers reported seeing two groups of soldiers.
He said: 'The villagers said they were hearing machine gun fire and pistol fire from different directions.'
But a spokesman for U.S.-led forces, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, said that their reports still indicate a single soldier carried out the attacks.
The attack is sure to further tarnish relations between Afghanistan and the U.S., as it comes weeks after NATO soldiers burned copies of the Koran - the Muslim holy book - sparking a violent protest that has left some 30 people dead.
A senior U.S. defence official in Washington rejected early witness accounts that several apparently drunk soldiers were involved.
'Based on the preliminary information we have this account is flatly wrong,' the official said.
'We believe one U.S. service member acted alone, not a group of U.S. soldiers.'
One man told the AFP news agency of his great loss.
‘Eleven members of my family are dead. They are all dead,’ Haji Samad said.
'They [Americans] poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,' a weeping Mr Samad told Reuters at the scene.
A resident of Alkozai, where the shootings took place, said 16 people were killed as the U.S. service member went into three different houses and started shooting.
The villager, Abdul Baqi, said he had not seen the bodies himself, but had talked to the family members of the dead.
‘When it was happening in the middle of the night we were inside our houses. I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again,’ Mr Baqi said.
Mr Karzai also said that five people were wounded. Their conditions are unknown.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta called the Afghan president to express ‘profound regret’ and assure him that ‘this terrible incident does not reflect our shared values or the progress we have made together,’ his office said in a statement.
He concluded: ‘We will bring those responsible to justice.’
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force deputy commander Lt Gen Andrian Bradshaw would not speculate the reasoning behind the seemingly random attack.
Mr Karzai said in a statement that he was sending high-level authorities to investigate the shooting and deliver a full report.
Scene of the crime: Afghan men investigate at the site of an shooting incident in Kandahar province
Beyond tears: A grieving Afghan sits in a van next to one of the bodies (left) while another man sits in a truck bed keeping watch over the body of a young boy
Demanding answers: Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the shootings as an 'assassination' and said it 'cannot be forgiven'
‘This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven,’ Mr Karzai said in a statement, adding that he has repeatedly called for the U.S. to stop killing Afghan citizens.
TENSIONS RISING BETWEEN U.S. AND AFGHANISTAN
The attack by the so-called ‘rogue’ U.S. soldier is the latest in a string of tension points between the two countries.
Last month, violent protests erupted after U.S. troops burned copies of the Koran in Kabul; more than 30 were killed.
In January, a video seeming to depict Marines urinating on dead Afghans went viral. Both U.S. and UN officials called it ‘disgusting’ and ‘inhuman.’
Also in January, a report said that at least 58 Western troops were killed by Afghan soldiers between May 2007 to May 2011, showing deep distrust between Afghan soldiers and their supposed western allies.
The war in Afghanistan began more than a decade ago when the US, UK, and Australia launched 'Operation Enduring Freedom.'
President Obama issued a statement this afternoon saying he is ‘deeply saddened’ by the ‘tragic and shocking’ killing of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier.
He said: ‘This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.'
The White House said that Mr Obama phoned Mr Karzai to personally express his regret.
The president also vowed to ‘get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible'.
On Sunday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement: ‘We are deeply concerned by the initial reports of this incident, and are monitoring the situation closely.’
On CBS’ Face the Nation, Newt Gingrich commented on the escalating tensions in Afghanistan and elsewhere, saying: ‘I think that we have to reassess the entire region,’ noting Washington’s tumultuous relationship with neighbouring Pakistan as well.
To prove that the bodies had been set on fire, Afghan villagers brought out badly burned blankets, the New York Times reported.
More than 300 people came out to protest the senseless violence.
An AP photo showed the bloodstained corner of a house next to a large black area that was charred by fire.
The charred area appeared to be remnants of blankets and possibly bodies that had been set on fire. Villagers packed inside the minibus looked on with concern as a woman spoke to reporters.
She pulled back a blanket to reveal the body of a smaller child wearing what appeared to be red pajamas. A third dead child lay in a pile of green blankets in the bed of a truck.
Eagle eyes: U.S. Army and Afghan soldiers were perched in a guard tower at their base in Panjwai following the deadly shootings
OBAMA 'DEEPLY SADDENED' BY 'SHOCKING' AFGHAN SHOOTING
President Obama issued a statement Sunday saying he is ‘deeply saddened’ by the ‘tragic and shocking’ killing of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier.
He said: ‘This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.’
The president also vowed to ‘get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible.’
'This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act,' one witness said.
'Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women.'
'He should be handed over to us,’ he told the Associated Press.
There were reports of protests in Panjwai following the shooting and the U.S. embassy warned travellers in Kandahar province to ‘exercise caution'.
The Afghan Taliban would take revenge for the deaths, the group said in an emailed statement to media.
‘The so-called American peacekeepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians in Kandahar province,’ the Taliban’s statement read.
The shooting comes after weeks of tense relations between U.S. forces and their Afghan hosts following the burning of Korans and other religious materials at an American base.
Though U.S. officials apologised and said the burning was purely accidental, the incident sparked violent protests and attacks that killed some 30 people and a host of anti-American protests.
Six U.S. troops have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since news of the Koran burnings came to light.
In the capital, meanwhile, Mr Karzai said the government still expects to sign a strategic partnership agreement with the United States by the time a NATO summit convenes in Chicago in May.
The agreement would formalize the U.S.-Afghan relationship and the role of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after NATO's scheduled transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government at the end of 2014.
But Mr Karzai stressed the importance of foreign forces leaving Afghanistan to preserve the country's national sovereignty.
‘We have a strong army and police, so it is to our benefit to have good relations with the international community, not have international troops in our country,’ Mr Karzai said at a public event in Kabul.
The president has demanded that international forces stop night raids on the homes of suspected militants as a condition to signing the strategic partnership agreement. The raids have caused widespread anger among Afghans.
All foreign combat troops are slated to withdraw by end of 2014 from a costly war that has become increasingly unpopular.
