The Pentagon rejected calls Monday for an American soldier arrested in the killings of 16 Afghan civilians to be tried in public in Afghanistan, saying the US military will prosecute him. Investigations, and where warranted, the prosecutions of US service members are governed by "agreements in place with the government of Afghanistan," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
He insisted the US military has "very strong means to address wrongdoing." Little's comments came after the Afghan parliament demanded a public trial before the Afghan people for the rogue American soldier's "brutal and inhuman" killings, whose victims were mostly women and children.
The American walked off his base in southern Kandahar province and allegedly broke into three village homes before dawn Sunday in an event Afghan President Hamid Karzai described as "unforgivable." Among the most brutal atrocities by US forces in over 10 years of war in Afghanistan, the incident brought US-Afghan relations to their lowest point and threatened US negotiations with the Afghan government on a long-term security relationship.
It came amid growing public anger after Americans burned Korans last month and an earlier video that allegedly showed US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban militants. "We seriously demand and expect that the government of the United States punish the culprits and try them in a public trial before the people of Afghanistan," the lower house of the Afghan parliament said in statement.
"People are running out of patience over the ignorance of foreign forces." The US Army sergeant alleged to have committed the Afghan killings is in his 30s, according to Little. He served three tours of duty in Iraq and this was his first deployment to Afghanistan.