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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew twist in Bales' Afghanistan rampage reporting.
(AP) WASHINGTON - American officials say U.S. investigators now believe the U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians split the slaughter into two episodes - returning to his base after the first attack and later slipping away to kill again.
This scenario seems to support the U.S. government's assertion contested by some Afghans that the killings were done by one person, since they would have been perpetrated over a longer period of time than assumed when Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was detained March 11.
But it also raises questions about how Bales, who was formally charged with premeditated murder, could have carried out the slaughter without drawing attention from others on the American base in Kandahar province.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57403946/u.s.-bales-went-on-2-shooting-sprees/
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)that at least one survivor said there was more than one at the same time - as opposed to separate occasions.
EFerrari
(163,986 posts)they saw more than one person.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)to two individual events - was continuous.
EFerrari
(163,986 posts)or, it could be something else. Hard to say.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Between 1 & more than 1?
Quite a discrepancy.
EFerrari
(163,986 posts)iirc, that a little more than a week before the massacre, an IED went off in the same location. The villagers were lined up against a wall and they were told that not only they but also their children would pay for it.
So now, the people are certain Bales' (and ?) murders are the threatened retribution.
ETA: It might have been Greenwald. I don't remember now.
PSPS
(13,623 posts)The US media has been alone in promoting the "lone nut" story. The guy (Bales) has a bum foot and certainly couldn't have walked to two different villages located kilometers apart and done all of this in the time frame.