Report on Panjwai Massacre of March 2012

In March 2012, in a year where the insider attacks against ISAF Soldiers took its heaviest toll, SSG Robert Bales committed a gruesome crime against Afghan civilians. Bales was an infantry squad leader attached to a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha in a remote village in Panjwai district, Kandahar province. SSG Bales was using steroids and alcohol prior to killing Afghan civilians in southern Afghanistan in March 2012. The Panjwai district massacre occurred just outside of a Special Forces village stability platform (village) at VSP Belambai. Read more in "Report: Bales 'erratic' before 212 shooting rampage", Army Times, August 18, 2015. The 569 page official report can be read online. It was completed by the United States Forces - Afghanistan (USFOR-A) Staff Judge Advocate on June 22, 2012 and was originally classified SECRET. It has since been downgraded and approved for release.