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Afghanistan shooting victims 'paid thousands' in compensation
[Dawn] Relatives of 17 people rubbed out in a rampage by a US soldier in southern Afghanistan have been paid tens of thousands of dollars in compensation, a tribal chief and government officials said Sunday.The money -- provided by the US military -- was handed over at a private ceremony at the Kandahar provincial governor's office, they said. "The elders called me and said they were paid $50,000 per person for the dead and $11,000 for the injured per person," Haji Agha Lalai, a tribal chief and a member of the Kandahar provincial council, told AFP. The killings -- mostly of women and kiddies -- in Panjwai district are thought to be the deadliest crime by a US soldier during the decade-long conflict and have tested Washington and Kabul's already tense relationship to the limit. The US is keen to draw a line under the massacre earlier this month as far as it can and the sums -- around $900,000 in total -- amount to a fortune in rural Afghanistan. The payments on Saturday came a day after Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 38, of the US 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, was formally accused of 17 premeditated murders for the killings -- charges that could carry the death penalty. Posted by: Fred 2012-03-26 |
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