The U.S. military plans to charge Staff Sgt. Robert Bales today with 17 counts of murder, and six counts of attempted murder, according to the Associated Press. Bales is accused of leaving his base in Afghanistan on March 11, killing Afghan civilians (nine of whom were children) as they slept in their villages, then burning some of their bodies.
Bales is currently imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz has a wrap-up of the charges, and of previous accusations of violence in 2008 allegedly perpetrated by Bales that have recently come to light:
