A dozen American soldiers from the U.S Army’s 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division stationed in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, have been accused of randomly murdering civilians and/or covering up their actions.

 

Five soldiers face charges of murdering three Afghan men for sport in separate attacks in January, February and May of this year. The other seven troops are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who reported the abuses to superiors.

 

The blood sport activities allegedly began after Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs arrived at forward operating base Ramrod in November 2009. Gibbs, of Billings, Montana, reportedly bragged about getting away with similar activities while stationed in Iraq. He is also accused of collecting finger bones, leg bones and teeth from the Afghan corpses; slaughtering animals; and obtaining stolen weapons so that he could plant them next to the bodies of the civilians he had killed. Gibbs and Specialist Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska, are charged in all three murders.

 

The father of one soldier, Specialist Adam Winfield, tried repeatedly to warn Army commanders about the killings after learning of them from his son, who wrote to his parents, “Should I do the right thing and put myself in danger for it. Or just shut up and deal with it? There are no more good men left here. It eats away at my conscience everyday.” Winfield himself was subsequently arrested for involvement in the third killing. He claims that Gibbs ordered him to take part in the murder.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

US Soldiers 'Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies' (by Chris McGreal, The Guardian)

Soldier's Father: Army Was Warned of Murder Plot (by Gene Johnson, Associated Press)

Stryker Soldiers Allegedly Took Corpses' Fingers (by Hal Bernton, Seattle Times)