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• Staff Sgt. Robert Bales formally charged in Afghanistan massacre

  Staff Sgt. Robert Bales formally charged in Afghanistan massacre

  WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Friday formally charged Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales with 17 counts of premeditated murder, meaning the 38-year-old soldier could face the death penalty if convicted of a March 11 rampage in southern Afghanistan.

  The military also said for the first time that nine children were killed and four were wounded in the early morning incident in southern Kandahar province. Their ages were unspecified and the manner of their deaths wasn't released, nor was any motive for the killings, which have shocked Americans and Afghans alike and raised new challenges for an orderly U.S. exit from the decade-long war in Afghanistan.

  Bales, married and a father of two, was also charged with the premeditated murder of four women and four men, and with attempting to kill two others. The dead died of gunshot wounds, and the charging document said that wounded were shot in the neck, chest, thigh and groin.

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• Is Lewis-McChord really 'most troubled base in the military'?

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  Some have connected the March 11 massacre by a U.S. soldier to other problems at the base: a record number of suicides, several investigations into the treatment of soldiers diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, a "kill team" convicted of murdering civilians for sport in Afghanistan and a string of other crimes involving present and past soldiers.