'US alerted over Bales behaviour'

28 Mar 2012, 9:24 am   -   Source: Yalda Hakim, Dateline SBS
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Afghan officials investigating the shooting of 17 civilians by US solder Robert Bales have told SBS Afghan guards alerted US forces about the unusual behaviour of a US soldier that night.

Audio: Anatomy of a Massacre

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Afghan officials investigating the shooting of 17 civilians by US solder Robert Bales have told SBS Afghan guards alerted US forces about the unusual behaviour of a US soldier that night.

SBS’s Dateline has uncovered more detail about what happened the night an American soldier allegedly went on a shooting rampage in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province earlier this month.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is facing 17 counts of pre-meditated murder, along with a string of other charges, for the massacre of Afghan civilians in two villages in Panjwai District in the early hours of 11 March.

Dateline journalist Yalda Hakim and cameraman Ryan Sheridan were granted rare access to President Hamid Karzai’s chief investigator, to survivors and their relatives, and to the area where the attacks took place.

Hakim found that an Afghan soldier who was on duty at the entrance of the Camp Balambai military base that night, sent a colleague to alert American forces about the unusual behaviour of a US soldier entering the camp at 1.30am after the first series of killings at Alkozai village.

“I told him that an American had just entered the base. He went to the interpreter to notify the foreign forces. After that, I don’t know what happened,” he told Hakim.

In spite of the warning, Sgt. Bales is believed to have then remained at the camp for a full hour before leaving again for a second village, Najiban, where his rampage continued.

Another Afghan guard told Hakim that he saw the soldier walking out of the base, towards Najiban village.

An Afghan guard reported seeing Bales outside the base.

(An Afghan guard says he reported sighting Bales outside the base.)

“He had an M4 gun, a helmet and his bullet proof vest. He started to walk off. When he started to move away I called a patrol and told them that an American has left the base. The patrol called the platoon commander and the platoon commander notified the foreign forces,” the Afghan guard who spotted Bales returning from Najiban told Hakim.

When recounting the attacks, several survivors referred to more than one American soldier being involved. Amina, a mother of six children whose husband was murdered, told Hakim:

“When they shot dead my husband, I tried to drag him into the house, they'd shot him in the head so his brain was all over my hands. I had to use a bowl for his blood.

“I saw more than 20 people when I looked out the house. The Americans pointed their gun at me and threatened me, telling me not to leave the house or they'd kill me,” Amina continued.

Claims that Bales did not act alone are being examined by President Hamid Karzai’s chief investigator, General Sher Mohammad Karimi.

“What they claim is that there were boot prints in the area, in some area they see the kneeling position of three, four individuals, and also they claim that the helicopters were there to support the operations,” General Karimi told Hakim.

“Of course I told them the helicopters were used when the guy went missing when they were searching for him. They said ‘no, the noise of the helicopters were from the very beginning the shooting start’. So, that means there were many Americans who were supporting this issue that were doing this deliberately it is not an individual. So, that is the claim of the people,” General Karimi continued.

Bales was formally charged last week with 17 premeditated murders as well as six counts of assault and attempted murder in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

TRANSCRIPT of Yalda Hakim's story Anatomy of a Massacre

INTERVIEW WITH YALDA - Yalda Hakim explains to SBS Radio's World News Australia how she was able to get such unprecedented access to the massacre investigation.

Watch Yalda Hakim's earlier interview with President Hamid Karzai
 

Dateline , Yalda Hakim , Afghanistan Massacre

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Your Comments

bringing the Afghans democracy

lydia - from Brisbane, 1 year

Yalda Hakim.speaks the lingo and knows the Bigwigs I think the story is so hard to grasp because the crime was so heinous, but I can see the helicopter circling the village in search of Bales after his departure from the camp. The villagers would have heard them and they would have landed and hunkered down on hearing the gunfire. Perhaps they all tried to cover it up before they took Bales back. Pity Hakim didn't interview the search party but I guess they'd claim they too were traumatized.

@Steve from Denver

Dave - from Thailand, 1 year

I can understand that it is hard for you to believe, that US soldiers are doing a crime. As it would be a breakdown of your believe system. Just bear in mind soldiers follow orders, and this massacre was an order. Have you seen in the eyes of the witnesses. How can you question that the story lost credibility? What more do you need? Wake up Steve, this is reality!

Our government and its lies.

Steve Zimmett - from St. Marys, PA, 1 year

Can you believe any thing the government tells us. How many troops were involved. Dateline journalist Yalda Hakim. I give her great credit for covering this story. Too bad our own media did not pick up on this. Just another MSM mistake. But then they never talk about all the notrocities in Afghanistan. Do you really think that Bales acted alone. When I heard of this I knew that more than one US soldier was involved.

Thank You, Australia

Jim - from USA, 1 year

Thank you for giving us the news. I appears that Americans are only given opinions now, not fact.s

re-incidents of American murdering children

coolpolitealex - from london, 1 year

The American people are a christian people,but brought up in a Judea eye for an eye model , a model that seeks out vengeance, not the christian values of forgiveness and justice in a court of law. This act of cold blooded murder of the sleeping women and their children in their beds must surely come from a society that has clearly been confused as to where they come from, ie' a Christian so called "God Fearing" civilized community, and not a murdering vengefull society .

did Afghan guards corroborate villagers?

lena - from Los Angeles, 1 year

If there were more soldiers taking part in the massacres, why did the Afghan guards only see Bales enter & then later depart from the base? Wouldn't the reporter have asked whether they saw any other Americans entering or leaving and if so, why isn't that part of this story? The Afghan guards' do not seem to corroborate the villagers regarding other soldiers being involved.

get us out of there

christi - from texas, 1 year

If this is true and our men are committing planned war crimes, then we need to get them out of there. We as a people need to say enough, this is not ok. No government cover-up this time, no sweeping it under the rug or blaming one man, just get them all out of there. We claim to stand for truth and justice, to fight for these ideals, then lets be HONEST and say these MEN committed a heinous crime against humanity and be JUST by punishing ALL of those involved. Lets not lie to save face!

That's a bit of a stretch...

Steve - from Denver, CO - USA, 1 year

Once I heard that they're claiming US helicopters were involved in the massacre, the story lost all credibility. There's just no way we'd do anything like that. I fear now that this story will be played all over the Arab world and they'll believe the mistaken beliefs of the scared and confused villagers. That should really help things! We, the US, should never have gone there in the first place. We need an alternative to oil so that we don't need to deal with that part of the world at all!

Nobody

ljrmisty - from USA, 1 year

While I found you through a link @ MSNBC, this side of the story is NOT being told here. You"re bookmarked and are now a permanent part of my daily fact finding. Thank you

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