Victims’ Relatives Testify At U.S. Soldier’s Afghan Massacre Trial
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — Relatives of victims killed in a massacre in southern Afghanistan in March have testified at a hearing for the U.S. soldier accused in the attack.
The relatives spoke late on November 9 via video from Kandahar to the courtroom in the U.S. state of Washington where the trial of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is taking place.
One, Khamal, found the bodies of his kin after the attack piled together and burned.
He said that “everybody was shot in the head.”
The testimony is important because many attack victims were buried without examination by forensic specialists to prove they were murdered.
The U.S. Army says Bales killed seven adults and nine children in a rampage through two villages near his base on March 11.
He faces the death penalty if convicted.
