Brigadier general to conduct review of 5th Stryker brigade as evidence emerges of widespread complicity in deaths.
The US military is investigating the leadership
of an army brigade whose soldiers are accused of running a "kill
team" that murdered Afghan civilians, as further evidence emerges of
widespread complicity in the deaths.
A brigadier general is conducting a "top to
bottom" review of the 5th Stryker brigade after five of its soldiers were
committed for trial early next year charged with involvement in
the murders of three Afghans and other alleged crimes including mutilating
their bodies, and collecting fingers and skulls from corpses as trophies.
Among the issues under investigation is the failure of
commanders to intervene when the alleged crimes were apparently widely spoken
about among soldiers.
Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the alleged leader of what
prosecutors have characterised as a death squad based in Kandahar province in
southernAfghanistan, is accused of planning the alleged murders in which
civilians were killed with hand grenades and guns and their deaths made to
appear to be legitimate battlefield casualties. Gibbs, 26, has denied three
charges of murder and other crimes.
Four other soldiers are charged with involvement in at
least one of the three murders over a five-month period this year. They include
an army specialist, Adam Winfield, whose lawyer has released a Facebook chat
between the soldier and his father, Christopher, that suggests many other
soldiers in the brigade approved of the killings.
In the chat, Winfield says he is troubled by one murder
by other members of his unit. "Some innocent guy about my age just
farming. They made it look like the guy threw a grenade and them and mowed him
down ... Everyone pretty much knows it was staged. If I say anything it's my
word against everyone. There's no one in this platoon that agrees this was
wrong. They all don't care."
Later in the chat, Winfield wrote: "Everyone just
wants to kill people at any cost. They don't care. The Army is full of a bunch
of scumbags I realized."
Winfield's father contacted the military to warn it about
the killings. His son later admitted to firing his gun towards a third Afghan
who was allegedly murdered two months later. Winfield later told investigators
in videotaped interviews shown at a pre-trial hearing that Gibbs formed the
"kill team".
Another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, who faces a court
martial for alleged involvement in all three murders, has also accused
Gibbs of organising the killings.
"Gibbs had pure hatred for all Afghanis and
constantly referred to them as savages," said Morlock.
Seven other soldiers are charged with lesser crimes,
including drug use, collecting body parts as souvenirs and covering up the
killings. Gibbs is alleged to have kept finger bones, leg bones and a tooth
from Afghan corpses. Another soldier is said to have collected a human skull.
Some of the soldiers are also accused of taking a
photograph posing next to one of the corpses as if it were hunted game. The
military has so far declined to offer the pictures in evidence out of concern
they would be more generally released and prompt a backlash against US troops
in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, one of the accused soldiers, Staff
Sergeant Robert Stevens, reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in which he
was convicted of aggravated assault over two killings and sentenced to nine
months in prison after agreeing to testify against 10 other members of his
unit. He also pleaded guilty to lying about these crimes and to dereliction of
duty.
Stevens had faced charges that carried up to 19 years in
prison.