US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

Wow - it would appear that these guys have already been convicted and that all these "alleged" acts have been proven true. I do not recall reading this in the article at all! What I did read was a new soldier who was "disciplined" by his peers for splitting on them and suddenly told them about this "Kill Team" that he knew about.

Something does not make sense here. Let's look to the report in question

The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades

Wow - so he at first does not report this out of loyalty to his comrades! He also at this stage would have known about the death squad but I am assuming does not report this for the same reason! What a guy hey.

So let's look at what makes him actually report this

But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.

So you can murder innocent victims and keep their fingers - thats ok but not smoking hach in his living quarters...again what a guy!
Note that at this stage he does not report the killings and only the hash usage.

So when does he see fit to report the killings.

Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of "snitching", gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the "kill team".

So only after they beat him for snitching did he actually report them!

Folks - seriously, do you honestly think a guy "straight out of basic training" would be privy to a kill team?
Is he part of this kill team?
Why would he risk jail time because he was smacked around a bit?
Why did he not report this when he was first made aware of it?

Anyway - war is hell so hellish things happen during war, this is it's nature.