From [HERE] A US soldier accused of one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was captured on surveillance video running out of the darkness with the blood of his victims smeared on his face and soaked into his clothes, a prosecutor said.

Less than a mile away, 16 Afghans, including nine children, were dead, some of their bodies on fire in two villages, a hearing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, was told. As fellow soldiers stopped him at the base's gate, Staff Sgt Robert Bales was incredulous, prosecutors said. Then, as he was taken into custody, Bales said: "I thought I was doing the right thing."

The details, from a prosecutor as well as Bales' comrades, emerged as a preliminary hearing in his case opened, offering the clearest picture yet of the killings.

The March 11 attack prompted the US to halt combat operations for days in the face of protests, and it was a month before military investigators could reach the crime scenes.

The prosecutor, Lt Col Jay Morse, said that after Bales attacked one village near his post at Camp Belambay, he returned, woke a colleague to report what he had done, and warned that he was heading back out to attack another village.

"I never got out of bed, sir," the colleague, Sgt Jason McLaughlin, told the hearing. "I thought it was ridiculously out of the realm of normal possibility, sir."

Bales, 39, faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. The hearing could last up to two weeks and will help determine whether the case goes to a court martial. The defence did not give an opening statement.

Bales has not entered a plea. His lawyers have not discussed the evidence but say he has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury during a previous deployment to Iraq.

The father of two from Lake Tapps, Washington, wore green fatigues and sat beside one of his civilian lawyers as an investigating officer read the charges against him and informed him of his rights. When asked if he understood them, Bales said: "Sir, yes, sir."