The Army staff sergeant being detained in Afghanistan
for allegedly killing 16 civilians Sunday, most of them children,
likely will stand trial in the U.S., military sources told Fox News --
and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he could face the death penalty.
The suspect, whose name has not yet been
released, is described to Fox News by military sources as an infantry
sniper out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. He suffered
traumatic brain injury in 2010 after a vehicle rollover accident in Iraq, though he later was deemed "fit for duty," a senior U.S. official said.
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Sources also said the suspect had "family
problems," possibly related to trouble in his marriage, before deploying
for the fourth time.
Panetta said he may face capital charges,
and that the U.S. must resist pressure from Washington and Kabul to
change course in Afghanistan because of anti-American outrage over the
shooting.
"We seem to get tested almost every other
day with challenges that test our leadership and our commitment to the
mission that we're involved in," Panetta told reporters traveling with
him to Krygzystan. "War is hell."
Sunday's attack in southern Kandahar
province unfolded in two villages near a U.S. base. Villager Mohammad
Zahir recounted to the Associated Press how an American soldier burst
into his home in the middle of the night, searched the rooms, then
dropped to a knee and shot his father in the thigh as he emerged from a
bedroom.
"He was not holding anything -- not even a cup of tea," Zahir said.
The AP reported the suspect is a 38-year-old
father of two. Fox News sources said he didn't turn himself in, but
rather returned to the base and was detained, as he He was the only
person thought to have left the base.
The shootings come as anti-Americanism
already is boiling over in Afghanistan after U.S. troops burned Korans
last month and a video of Marines urinating on alleged Taliban corpses was posted on the Internet in January.
An enraged Afghan President Hamid Karzai
called it "an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent
civilians" that cannot be forgiven. He demanded an explanation from
Washington for the deaths, which included nine children and three women.
NATO
and member countries said the slayings were a blow to the alliance's
efforts to cultivate trust but would not affect the timeline to hand
over security operations to Afghans by the end of 2014. The White House said U.S. objectives will not change because of the killings.
The soldier has been in the military for 11
years and served three tours in Iraq. His name was not released because
it would be "inappropriate" to do so before charges are filed, said
Pentagon spokesman George Little.
But Panetta, his first public remarks on the
incident, said Monday evening the death penalty is a consideration as
the military moves to investigate and possibly put the suspect on trial.
The soldier was deployed to Afghanistan on
Dec. 3 with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker
Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
located south of Seattle, a congressional source told the Associated
Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity
of the matter.
He was attached Feb. 1 to the village
stability program in Belambai, a half-mile from one of the villages
where the attack took place, the congressional source said.
Zahir told how he watched the soldier enter his house and move through it methodically, checking each room.
"I heard a gunshot. When I came out of my
room, somebody entered our house. He was in a NATO forces uniform. I
didn't see his face because it was dark," he said.
Zahir, 26, said he quickly went to a part of the house where animals are penned.
"After that, I saw him moving to different areas of the house -- like he was searching," he said.
His father, unarmed, then took a few steps out of his bedroom, Zahir recalled. Then the soldier fired.
"I love my father, but I was sure that if I
came out he would shoot me too. So I waited." Zahir said. His mother
started pulling his father into the room, and he helped cover his
father's bullet wound with a cloth. Zahir's father survived.
After the gunman left, Zahir said he heard
more gunshots near the house, and he stayed in hiding for a few minutes
to make sure he was gone.
Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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