Post date: Aug 23, 2013 10:3:29 AM
U.S. soldier Robert Bales, who gunned down 16 unarmed Afghan civilians, says he's "truly sorry" at a sentencing hearing on Thursday (August 22).
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, TACOMA, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES(AUGUST 22, 2013) (PETER MILLETT) - A decorated U.S. soldier who gunned down 16 unarmed Afghan civilians in a nighttime rampage last year apologized on Thursday (August 22) at a sentencing hearing to determine his fate, calling the killings "an act of cowardice."
Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has admitted to shooting the villagers, mostly women and children, in attacks on their family compounds in Kandahar province in March 2012.Bales told a jury in a military courtroom in Washington state that he was "truly sorry" for the killings, choking up at times.
Bales pleaded guilty to the killings in June in a deal that will spare him the death penalty. A jury of six military personnel will ultimately decide if he will spend the rest of his natural life in prison or be eligible for parole after 20 years. Closing arguments are due on Friday (August 23).
Defense lawyers have been seeking to show that Bales was a dutiful soldier and father who suffered a breakdown under the pressure of his final military deployment to Afghanistan that led to the massacre.
Army prosecutors have said Bales acted alone with chilling premeditation when, after a night of drinking and armed with a pistol, a rifle and a grenade launcher, he left his base twice during the night, returning in the middle of his rampage to tell a fellow soldier, "I just shot up some people."
The killings marked the worst case of civilian deaths blamed on a rogue U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and further eroded strained U.S.-Afghan relations after more than a decade of conflict in that country.