Charges against Bales challenge Army's victim list

January 17, 2013 @ 5:54 pm

Associated Press

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) - An unredacted list of the charges against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales reveals discrepancies in the Army's account of how many adults and how many children died during the nighttime massacre in which he is charged.

The Army has maintained, through its public affairs officers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, that Bales killed seven adults and nine children early March 11, 2012. However, the unredacted charges against Bales, which The Associated Press obtained from his lawyer _ suggest the total might have been eight adults and eight children.

It isn't clear what caused the discrepancy. Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, an Army spokesman, said Thursday he could not immediately explain it.

The Army has only released charges that black out the names of the victims, identifying them simply as male or female. But during a pretrial hearing in November, officials did provide a list of nine adult victims. The Army said seven of them had been killed and two injured, but didn't indicate which were which.

The unredacted charges show that eight of the names from the list of adults _ not seven _ were murder victims.

The charges offer the first official list of all victims, including children. Many Afghans use only one name.

Victims previously identified as adults who are listed in murder charges:

Na'ikmarga, female

Khudai Dad, male

Nazir Mohammad, or Nazir Aka, male

Mohammad Dawud, male

Shah Tarina, female

Zahrah, female

Naazyah, female

Akhtar Mohammad, male

Others identified as murder victims:

Tora, or Gulalai, female

Masuma, female

Farida, female

Palwasha, female

Nabia, female

Ismattullah, male

Faizullah, male

Issa Mohammad, male

The charges identify six people as victims of attempted murder:

Haji Mohammad Naim, an adult male

Zardana, female child

Rafiullah, male child

Parmina, female

Sadiquallah, male child

Robina, female child


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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