U.S. Soldier Opens Fire on Afghan Civilians: Up to 17 Dead

By on March 11, 2012 in News 18

Via the Los Angeles Times:

A lone American serviceman slipped away from his base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and went on a methodical house-to-house shooting spree in a nearby village, killing 16 people, nearly all of them women and children, according to Afghan officials who visited the scene.

The NATO force confirmed that the assailant was in military custody, and that he had inflicted an unspecified number of casualties during the shooting spree at about 3 a.m. Sunday. The U.S. Embassy called for calm and expressed deep condolences; the Taliban referred to the killings as an “act of genocide.”

Via Al-Jazeera:

“Eleven members of my family are dead. They are all dead,” Haji Samad, an elder from Panjwai district, told the AFP news agency.

Captain Justin Brockhoff, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), could not confirm any fatalities in the incident.

“This is a horrific incident, and our thoughts are with the families of the affected. Our initial reports indicate multiple civilians — between four and six- are wounded. Those civilians are receiving care at coalition medical facilities,” he told Al Jazeera.

“At this point we do not have an indication — we can not speculate about the individual’s motives.”

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  • Redacted

    ”
    U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that the assailant had suffered a mental breakdown.”

    No shit.

    • Hadrian999

       it’s an epidemic these days, 2 guys that i know of from my company have killed themselves, nobody wants to admit they have a problem and the tough guy ethic makes them think if they have a problem they are a bitch or a pussy.

      • Redacted

        I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do either. I’m just thankful that for all I saw and had to do I came out of it more or less psychologically intact.

        As for this idiot, its too late to help him. He’s going to hang for this, and he won’t need any help after that.

        • Hadrian999

           it’s strange you can see and  do the same things and one guy is relatively unscathed and another comes apart. One night my platoon got caught in a heavy ambush, most everybody was ok but one guy totally lost his shit afterwords and nobody really trusted him again and he pretty much never got put on the front line again, he got stuck on guard at the TAA or cordon security.

  • Mitch

    Support the troops!!! 

  • Nunzio X

    I think I’ve written something similar here before, but again:

    RECIPE FOR DISASTER

    1) Take young men and women

    2) Send them to some shithole of a 3rd world country they don’t give a fuck about

    3) Put them in “kill or be killed” situations constantly

    4) Give them enough time to see that their presense there is not only resented, but HATED by the locals

    5) Let them see their friends killed or maimed, and / or let them get maimed themselves

    6) Result: horrible mental and psychic scars

    Thanks, America, for sending so many of our young folks off on some bullshit mission at enormous expense. Hope you can cope with the inevitable backlash.

    • Jimmyz619

      “Captain Justin Brockhoff, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), could not confirm any fatalities in the incident.” - Cut the bullshit 

      1) hmmm wonder why young men and women have to enroll in the millitary, not like the economy is so bad that most of these young men and women have to enlist.2) “some shithole” of a 3rd world country. – dont think i need to explain whats wrong with that statement

      3) kill or be killed situation – i understand be killed, where does the kill come from. ISAF means what i thought it means right

      4) i highly doubt all the locals resent or hate ISAF, why would locals hate you in the first place? hmmm maybe less abusing, less yelling and try to help them for the fact that they live in an underdeveloped country. oh btw, im pretty sure pissing on dead bodies of people will make them hostile to you

      5) “only the dead see the end of a war” 

      6) hmmm, PTSD justifies all the wrong acts then right. im sure all the Afghanis thought it was fireworks when the tanks rolled into Afghanistan.

      bottom line is, nothing will be won when lives are lost. the US and all its buddies need to recognize that the best weapon and gear will not protect your soldiers from themselves. 
      If your going to claim to be the elite and peace keeper of the world, then act like it.

      how can one help others when he cannot help himself. 

      • Anarchy Pony

        You need to re-evaluate your number 1 there buddy-roe, the economy is quite in the shit, and the military is one of the only ways that poorer people can get access to college education. 

        • JaceD

          I think he was trying to make that point in a roundabout way. Unless I miss interpreted his first point completely.

  • erica198479

    uh. slipped away from his base?  so now we must protect the bases from not only intrusions but also escapes

  • Jimmyz619

    hmm, is it me or  is this a reoccurring thing going on with cough “western” cough military. yes, a soldier has no choice in where he gets deployed and tasked to do. but “slipped away” from his base. not good enough, that is unacceptable for a military force that is “suppose” to be the world police and defender of justice.

  • MoralDrift

    “slipped away”

    Of course, the deployed soldier might as well be a prisoner on that base..albeit one given more creature comforts than possibly ever before in the history of war. It’s a sad sad thing, and if it wasn’t for the economy, patriotism, and just plain bad decisions….no one would enlist. The problem is, the culture of the military is designed to erase doubt as to whether or not enlisting was a good decision.
    Leaders and peers also like to tout falsehoods and misconceptions with glee “I’m US government property..blah blah blah” As if that is some kind of badge of honor..property..slavery…not to mention false. One waives many rights of citizenship but one does not waive the rights of humanity. 

    Under the right circumstances, such as defense of ones family and home, or when fighting after all else fails for truly noble causes it is honorable to serve in a military capacity. That being said, the US military has not been utilized in anything resembling defense or noble for quite some time. Refuse to deploy…far better than losing your shit and taking it out on others or yourself.

  • Lakota

    ::sigh:: I feel bad for both the soldiers and the civilians. They are both caught in someone else’s fight. No weapons of mass destruction. Al Queda can’t be a real threat cuz we’re now allied with them in Syria, millions dead , children orphaned. cities and farms destroyed. an looming military presence. Only a matter of time before a clash happened.

  • smooth_operator

    Can we just call this asshole a terrorist? I’m getting sick and tired of the euphemisms our guys get. Let’s put the humanity back into it.

    • JaceD

      But only muslims can be terrorists, to be a terrorist you have to scream “Allahu akbar” before slaughtering innocent people. Western nations don’t count because we’re always right and everybody else can get fucked.

  • rtb61

    Want to know how incompetent the US military is at keeping the peace. A lone gunmen can wander from house to house firing an assault rifle killing 17 people one at a time, whilst all the other chicken shit US soldiers hide in their barracks whilst it is going on, just the other fucking side of a fence.
    They can not even maintain the peace in the area surrounding their barracks. Note the soldier doesn’t seem to have been stopped, the soldier just got bored with killing Afghanis and wandered back into the barracks at their own leisure and only subsequent investigation found out what was going on.
    So well done US military response time to murderous shooting incident, fucking no response, all asleep and/or hiding, so the police force to have when you want criminals to run wild.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jiri-Klekner/1634435984 Jiri Klekner

    Breivik no2. just give him to Afgan civil court- they will sort him out

  • Adamsshadow

    Good morning class, can you say ‘Afghanistan’?

    “Afghanistan!”

    Very good, now let’s do some multipl-

    “Shitstorm!”

    Yes Johnny, that is also correct.  Those two words are called synonyms; class, can you say ‘synonyms’?

    “Shitynonyms!”

    Close enough.