Photos Of Innocent Afghanis ‘Murdered’ For Kicks By US Army ‘Kill Team’

CORPORAL Jeremy Morlock, Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield are alleged to formed part of a “kill team” that murdered Afghanis for kicks. In all 12 Us soldiers are accused of being in on the gang. The man were part of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province. Five are on trial for pre-meditated murder.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs is accused of cutting off a victim’s finger.

One of their alleged victims was Gul Mudin. He was killed in January 2010 at the village of La Mohammed Kalay “by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle“.

Two other allegedy murdered were Marach Agha and Mullah Adadhdad.

The accused are said to have posed for photos with their victims.

The US Army has apologised for

“We apologize for the distress these photos cause. The photos appear in stark contrast to the discipline, professionalism and respect that has characterized our Soldiers’ performance during nearly 10 years of sustained operations.”

Spc. Adam Winfield of Cape Coral, Florida. says he got involved out of fear for his own life:

When first questioned by investigators, Winfield spent three hours denying that any of the killings had been staged. The investigators believed he was refusing to talk because he was afraid of what the alleged ringleader, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Montana, might do to him if he talked.

During a restroom break near the tent where Gibbs was being held, Special Agent Anderson Wagner placed his arm around Winfield and said words to the effect of, “If you’re not scared of him, let’s go see Staff Sgt. Gibbs and I’ll tell him how you’ve been helping us.”

“He froze immediately,” Wagner testified during a hearing March 7. “He said, ‘No, he’ll kill me.'”

They went back into the interrogation room and Winfield gave a detailed statement, saying he and Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, of Wasilla, Alaska, fired on an unarmed man after Gibbs tossed a grenade at him.

The plan was flawed, allegedly:

The cover story, Winfield says, was that he and Morlock discovered the Afghan man was about to throw the grenade, so they killed him in self-defense. Statements in the investigation acquired by the Timessuggest that the team didn’t spend a lot of time making sure their cover stories checked out. On a February mission through an Afghan village, Staff Sergeant Kris Sprague noticed something was wrong with Gibbs’ account of an Afghan whom soldiers shot after he attempted to kill Gibbs with an AK-47. While Gibbs said the Afghan’s rifle jammed, Sprague test-fired it and it worked perfectly well.

And:

Another photo shows Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Holmes, of Boise, Idaho, holding the head of the same corpse. His lawyer, Daniel Conway, said Sunday that Holmes was ordered “to be in the photo, so he got in the photo. That doesn’t make him a murderer.”

And:

According to his lawyers, Morlock has agreed to plead guilty later this week to three counts of murder and other offenses and to testify against his co-defendants.

The photos are here: