By HEATHER BOSCH
KIRO Radio

They kept fingers, leg bones and other trophies of their victims, smoked hashish, and threatened fellow soldiers who wanted to report them.

Those are some the charges in a case against a total of 12 soldiers from the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, who were stationed in Afghanistan.

Five of the soldiers are accused of murdering or conspiring to murder three Afghan civilians.

"Stunned. I was stunned. We just couldn't believe it was happening," Dana Holmes said in an interview with a Boise television station.

Homes said her son Andy is "a good kid. He will give anybody the shirt off his back and not expect anything in return."

Spc. Andrew Holmes is one of five soldiers accused of murdering or conspiring to murder three Afghan civilians. Holmes, Spc. Michael Wagnon, Spc. Adam Winfield and Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs are all in custody.

Retired Army Major Mike Lyons says the alleged crimes are a symptom of the kind of war we're fighting in Afghanistan. "These soldiers are given much more responsibility. They don't have as much supervision as they're executing on their mission, so unfortunately there are less (fewer) people that can stop this kind of situation before it happens."

But the father of at least one of the soldiers tells The Associated Press he tried to warn the Army that troops in his son's unit had killed civilians.

Christopher Winfield says his son Adam was so disgusted after the first killing that he sent Facebook messages home asking for help. Winfield says he called Fort Lewis and a military hotline asking officials to investigate, but to no avail.

An Army spokeswoman declined to comment about whether the base received any tips about the case. Winfield provided phone records showing the calls, but the AP could not independently confirm what was said during them.

Each of the accused soldiers faces an Article 32, later this year. That's the military equivalent to a grand jury investigation and it's the next step toward a court-martial.

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