Spree-kill GI had bad brain injury

The US Army sergeant who massacred 16 Afghan civilians is a trained sniper who had suffered a traumatic brain injury and had serious marital problems, it was disclosed yesterday.

But somehow, the still-unidentified 38-year-old soldier was deemed fit for combat duty by the Army and sent to Afghanistan in December. It was his fourth tour to a war zone after three deployments in Iraq.

The killer, a father of two, is accused of gunning down nine children, three women and four men in a 90-minute rampage.

After he turned himself in, the soldier lawyered up and refused to say what prompted the atrocity, which threatens to poison crucial US-Afghan relations for years.

AP

NIGHTMARE: Afghans remove the body of one of the massacres 16 victims, slain by an unhinged GI who, incredibly, was cleared for active duty.

When the sergeant, assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash., returned from his last deployment to Iraq, he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems, ABC News reported.

Army officials, however, concluded that he had worked through those issues and was ready to go back to war.

In Afghanistan, he was assigned to Camp Belamby, a remote outpost in Kandahar Province, where he provided protection for Special Operations teams training local militias.

The killer himself was not in the elite unit.

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Spree-kill GI had bad brain injury