US soldier accused of Kandahar shootings 'had just seen his friend's leg blown off'

The 38-year-old army sergeant, being held in Kuwait, is said to have been unhappy about being sent to Afghanistan, having earlier been told he would not be redeployed after three tours in Iraq, said the attorney.

The married father-of-two is not being named, and his family has moved on to a military base south of Seattle because of security fears and concerns about retaliation for the attack.

A decorated veteran, the suspect is alleged to have left his base in southern Kandahar province before dawn Sunday and then proceeded to kill the Afghans, many of them children, in two neighboring villages.

"We have been informed that at this small base that he was at, somebody was gravely injured the day before the alleged incident, which affects all of the soldiers there," attorney John Henry Browne told reporters in Seattle.

He declined to give more details to reporters, but a report said a friend and fellow US trooper had his leg blown off next to the rampage suspect.

The suspect has been flown to Kuwait, in a first step towards being charged and put on trial outside Afghanistan, defying demands by Afghan leaders for a public trial at home.
Telegraph