Robert Bales Faces Angry Afghans as Sentencing Continues

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — The sentencing hearing for the U.S. soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians in rogue raids on two villages last year has resumed with testimony from a villager whose cousin lost 11 relatives in the attack.

Mullah Khamal Adin took the witness stand Wednesday against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Bales faces life in prison for murdering 16 civilians and wounding six others. A jury will decide if he ever gets a chance of parole.

Adin is one of nine Afghan villagers flown to a military base south of Seattle for the hearing.

He described arriving at the home of his cousin and finding his mother dead outside and a pile of burning bodies, including young children, inside.