'He's a normal guy,' says neighbour of US sniper accused of Afghan killings

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14. Afghan Suspect’s Life Marked by Honors, Personal Setbacks

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-17/afghan-suspect-spoke-with-pride-of-saving-civilian-lives.html

Robert Bales, the U.S. Army staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians, was a decorated veteran who also experienced wounds in service and setbacks at home.

He once spoke of saving civilians when his infantry unit in the Iraq war found villagers and family members of Iraqi fighters after the 2007 Battle of Najaf, also known as the Battle of Zarqa, that left 250 insurgents dead. The American soldiers turned from fighting to saving lives, according to a military account.

“I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that, three or four hours before, were trying to kill us,” Bales said in an interview for the 2009 report.

Yet women and children were among the 16 victims of the March 11 shootings in two villages in southern Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials who on March 16 identified Bales, a 38-year-old married father of two, as the suspect. The killings threaten to erode U.S.-Afghan relations, drain remaining U.S. and European support for the war and add pressure to speed troop withdrawals.