The soldier, now in US custody, is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in their homes in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday, and then burning some of their corpses. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, says nine of those killed were children and three were women. He spoke by telephone with the families of those killed, including 15-year-old Rafihullah, who was wounded in the leg. "He came to my uncle's home, he was running after women, he was tearing their dresses, insulting them," Rafihullah said on an audiotape of the conversation heard by AFP. "He killed my uncle and killed our servant and killed my grandma, he shot dead my uncle's son, his daughter," the boy said.
