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1 December 2010
Last updated at 10:52 ET
The first of 12 US soldiers accused of being part of a group that killed Afghan civilians for sport faces court martial on Wednesday.
Charges against Staff Sgt Robert Stevens include conspiracy to commit assault and battery, dereliction of duty and aggravated assault.
These relate to an incident in March where he is said to have shot at three Afghan men near an Army base.
Eleven others are charged in the affair, including five with murder.
Sgt Stevens faces up to 27 years in prison if convicted by the military hearing in Washington state, the Army said.
Drug use alleged The accused soldiers were attached to the Army's 5th Stryker Brigade, which deployed to Afghanistan last year and saw heavy fighting around Kandahar.
The alleged killing of Afghan civilians took place while the unit was deployed to Forward Operating Base Ramrod.
Army prosecutors have said the accused men conspired to kill unarmed Afghans for sport and to cover up the killings by fabricating a story about coming under attack.
One man, Staff Sgt Calvin Gibbs, is accused of taking finger bones, leg bones and a tooth from Afghan corpses as trophies and of showing fingers to another soldier and threatening to kill him if he reported drug use to commanding officers.
Sgt Gibbs' lawyer has said his client maintains the shootings were appropriate engagements with enemy and denies any conspiracy to murder Afghans.
'Complex proceedings'
According to charging documents obtained from the Army, Sgt Stevens in March conspired with other men to shoot three Afghan men, though he is not charged with murder.
In May, Sgt Stevens lied to a military investigator, telling them he thought the men were armed with a rocket propelled grenade, prosecutors said.
He is also accused of throwing a grenade from his Stryker armoured vehicle "while there was no immediate threat to himself or other soldiers".
Correspondents say the legal proceedings in the matter are likely to be complex, in part because of the difficulty of gathering evidence and witness testimony from the Afghan war zone.
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Charges against Staff Sgt Robert Stevens include conspiracy to commit assault and battery, dereliction of duty and aggravated assault.
These relate to an incident in March where he is said to have shot at three Afghan men near an Army base.
Eleven others are charged in the affair, including five with murder.
Sgt Stevens faces up to 27 years in prison if convicted by the military hearing in Washington state, the Army said.
Drug use alleged The accused soldiers were attached to the Army's 5th Stryker Brigade, which deployed to Afghanistan last year and saw heavy fighting around Kandahar.
The alleged killing of Afghan civilians took place while the unit was deployed to Forward Operating Base Ramrod.
Army prosecutors have said the accused men conspired to kill unarmed Afghans for sport and to cover up the killings by fabricating a story about coming under attack.
One man, Staff Sgt Calvin Gibbs, is accused of taking finger bones, leg bones and a tooth from Afghan corpses as trophies and of showing fingers to another soldier and threatening to kill him if he reported drug use to commanding officers.
Sgt Gibbs' lawyer has said his client maintains the shootings were appropriate engagements with enemy and denies any conspiracy to murder Afghans.
'Complex proceedings'
According to charging documents obtained from the Army, Sgt Stevens in March conspired with other men to shoot three Afghan men, though he is not charged with murder.
In May, Sgt Stevens lied to a military investigator, telling them he thought the men were armed with a rocket propelled grenade, prosecutors said.
He is also accused of throwing a grenade from his Stryker armoured vehicle "while there was no immediate threat to himself or other soldiers".
Correspondents say the legal proceedings in the matter are likely to be complex, in part because of the difficulty of gathering evidence and witness testimony from the Afghan war zone.
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