TACOMA/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The soldier implicated in the massacre of 16 villagers in Afghanistan this week, an incident that sent American-Afghan relations into a tailspin, is U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a U.S. official said yesterday.
The official declined to provide additional details about Bales, who is suspected of walking off his base in southern Afghanistan on Sunday and gunning down the 16 villagers, including nine children and three women.
Earlier, the soldier’s attorney said the staff sergeant was scheduled to arrive on Friday at the Fort Leavenworth army base in Kansas, where he will be held in maximum security. Fort Leavenworth has the U.S. Defense Department’s only maximum-security facility.
The 38-year-old soldier, whose military unit is based south of Tacoma, Washington, had been held in Kuwait after he was flown out of Afghanistan on Wednesday.
