US Killer Soldier ' was a trained sniper and murderer

The soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, most of them children, and burning their bodies was trained as a sniper and recently suffered a head injury in Iraq, US officials said. The name of the suspect, a married, 38-year-old father of two, has not been released. US defence secretary Leon Panetta said he could face the death penalty and that the US must resist pressure from Washington and Kabul to change course in Afghanistan because of anti-American outrage over the shooting.

"We seem to get tested almost every other day with challenges that test our leadership and our commitment to the mission that we're involved in," Mr Panetta told reporters travelling with him to Kyrgyzstan. "War is hell."

A US official said that during a recent tour of duty in Iraq, the suspect was involved in a vehicle accident and suffered a head injury. The accident was not a combat-related event, the official said. There was no available indication about the extent of the injury, or whether his injury could be linked to any abnormal behaviour afterwards. Two US officials said the suspect had been trained as a sniper.

Sunday's attack in southern Kandahar province unfolded in two villages near a US base. Villager Mohammad Zahir, 26, said an American soldier burst into his home in the middle of the night, searched the rooms, then dropped on to a knee and shot his father in the thigh as he emerged from a bedroom.

Meanwhile, militants have attacked an Afghan government delegation visiting one of the shooting sites. The attackers opened fire at the delegation from several sides, according to an AP photographer present.

It was unclear if anyone was killed or injured. The delegation included two of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brothers and senior security officials.

It came as hundreds of students in eastern Afghanistan held the first significant protest in the wake of the shootings.
The students shouted angry slogans against the soldier in the eastern city of Jalalabad and carried banners calling for his public trial. Some of the protesters were building an effigy of US president Barack Obama that they planned to burn.
The crowd shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to the soldier who killed our civilians!". Some carried a banner that called for a public trial of the soldier, other protesters burned an effigy of Mr Obama.