Sergeant U.S. will be charged for the deaths of 17 Afghan civilians

The U.S. government says that the accused will be indicted for killing multiple murder. Lawyer says the military can not remember what happened.Robert Bales, U.S. Sergeant charged with the massacre of Afghan civilians, will be charged with multiple murder, said a representative of the U.S. government on Thursday (22/03). He also faces other charges of violation of military law.

According to anonymous source, Bales will be put on trial for killing 17 people. Earlier reports said that 16 people had been killed, including nine children and three women.

The sergeant, 38, had left their base in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, on the evening of March 11, and fired on unarmed civilians in two villages nearby. The victims were sleeping.

Bales, who is the father of two children and originally from Washington state, is being held in a military prison in Kansas and will be tried in the United States. The Afghan Parliament has asked that he be tried in the Asian country. The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, has not ruled out that Bales will be sentenced with the death penalty.

Bales's attorney, John Henry Browne, said his client does not remember what happened and that the U.S. authorities can not prove what happened on the night of March 11.