World Wires

Bales hearing: Afghan teenagers describe attack on their home

 

Tacoma News Tribune

Prosecutors on Friday night called three witnesses who said they saw an American soldier in Alkozai shooting up Naim’s household. Naim first saw the American when the soldier jumped a wall with a rifle and a blinding flashlight.

Naim’s testimony grew forceful at times. His sons spoke more quietly. The boys smiled shyly when they swore an oath to tell the truth.

Sadiquallah is a soft-spoken 13-year old who was shot in the ear on the night of the killings. He fidgeted through his testimony, and frequently looked down at the ground while he answered questions through an interpreter.

He hid behind a curtain while the American soldier shot up his home, he said. "He came after me," Sadiquallah said.

Quadratullah is a year or so older than Sadiquallah. He escaped injury on March 11, but witnessed a neighbor's grandmother being shot to death. He also saw at least one of his siblings being wounded.

"We kept saying we are children, we are children," Quadratullah remembered. "Then he shot, he shot one of the children."

Quadratullah spoke more confidently than his younger brother. He grabbed a neighbor's motorcycle after the attack and alerted an older brother about the violence in their father's home.

The brother, Faizullah, gathered five wounded villagers at the house and took them to a nearby American forward base for medical care.

In the morning, Quadratullah found footprints from what he assumed was the American soldier who attacked his home. They led back to an American outpost, he said.

Both boys said they saw one American soldier that night. Quadratullah recognized that the soldier was an American because of his American combat pants and his weapon.

Quadratullah said the American wore only a T-shirt on his torso, which corroborates testimony from U.S. soldiers who apprehended Bales at their outpost.

It contradicts statements from two Afghan guards who on Friday night said they saw one American walk into the base and one American leave their camp. The Afghan guards said the man wore an armored vest that night.

Bales’ evidence hearing is scheduled to resume Saturday with testimony from three more Afghans he allegedly wounded and three more relatives of his alleged victims.

His defense attorneys at the start of Friday night’s hearing protested the Army’s decision not to bring Afghans with passports to Lewis-McChord, as they likely will have to do to participate in a court-martial. Browne is in Kandahar where he can cross-examine the Afghan witnesses in person.

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