The US occupation soldier who killed and burned 17 Afghan civilians would be charged with 17 counts of murder.

Robert Bales the US soldier who committed the Afghan massacre

The US occupation soldier who killed and burned 17 Afghan civilians would be charged with 17 counts of murder.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales would also be charged with six counts of assault and attempted murder, a US official said Thursday on condition of anonymity.

The massacre is likely the deadliest war crime of the ten-year-old conflict by a NATO occupation soldier and has further strained already difficult relations between the United States and Afghanistan.

Bales, 38, walked out of his base in the southern province of Kandahar under cover of darkness March 11 and killed 17 people in two nearby villages, including women and children. He then burned some of their bodies, returned to his base and surrendered.

The killings came at an already tense time for US-Afghan ties after US occupation troops burned copies of the holy Quran at US airbase of Bagram.

Bales could face the death penalty if convicted. The soldier's motives remain unknown.
Initially transferred to a US base in Kuwait, Bales is now at the Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas, where he is being held in a solitary cell.