US Army sergeant 'can't recall' Afghan massacre

ORT LEAVENWORTH: The US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers does not remember the incident, his lawyer said Monday, but the Pentagon has announced that he could be charged within days.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales - who prosecutors say returned to his base and turned himself in after the shooting rampage could face the death penalty if convicted, according to US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

The 38-year-old trooper's civilian attorney told CBS that the suspect cannot recall much about the deaths, which have plunged US-Afghan relations to a new low and was soon followed by the Taliban breaking off possible peace talks.

"He has an early memory of that evening and he has a later memory... but he doesn't have memory of the evening in between," John Henry Browne told CBS News after meeting Bales for the first time at Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas.

Bales, a decorated veteran who did three tours in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan in December, is accused of leaving his base in Kandahar province on the night of March 11 and going house to house to kill the villagers, including nine children.

He also allegedly set fire to several of his victims.

A US Army official told AFP that charges in relation to the killing will likely be announced by the American military in Afghanistan "within the next few days."

Under the US military justice system, prosecutors draft charges to be filed against an accused soldier, then present them to his unit commander, who must then decide whether there is enough evidence to believe a crime was committed.

Bales was sent to a military base in Kuwait in the wake of the killings but was then transferred to Fort Leavenworth, where he is being kept in an isolation cell, according to military officials. (AFP)