The
Kandahar massacre, more precisely identified as the
Panjwai massacre, occurred in the early hours of 11 March 2012, when
United States Army Staff Sergeant
Robert Bales murdered sixteen civilians and wounded six others in the
Panjwayi District of
Kandahar Province,
Afghanistan. Nine of his victims were children, and eleven of the dead were from the same family. Some of the corpses were partially burned. Bales was taken into custody later that morning when he told authorities, "I did it". On 23 August 2013, a jury at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in
Fort Lewis, Washington sentenced him to life in prison without parole.