Free Republic

STAFF SGT Calvin Gibbs, the ringleader of a rogue US army unit responsible for the "thrill kills" of Afghan civilians has been jailed for life, after a military jury convicted him of three murders. A five-member military panel found Gibbs guilty at the end of a week-long court martial, and said he should serve at least ten years behind bars before being eligible for parole. He was convicted on 15 counts in all, including three of premeditated murder for his role in three killings in southern Afghanistan between January and May last year. The prosecution portrayed Gibbs as the leader...

Commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for possible riots and public fury triggered by the publication of "trophy" photographs of US soldiers posing with the dead bodies of defenceless Afghan civilians they killed. Senior officials at Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly Der Spiegel to the images of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-US protests around the world. They fear that the pictures could be even more damaging as they show the aftermath of the deliberate murders of Afghan civilians by...