MCCHORD, Washington — The ringleader of a rogue US army unit responsible for the “thrill kills” of Afghan civilians was jailed for life Thursday, after a military jury convicted him of three murders. A five-member military panel found Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs guilty at the end of a week-long court martial, and said he should serve at least 10 years behind bars before being eligible for parole. Gibbs was convicted on 15 counts in all, including three of premeditated murder for his role in three killings in southern Afghanistan between January and May last year. The prosecution portrayed Gibbs as the leader of the rogue unit, which also harvested body parts from the victims as macaber war trophies. Three members of the unit had already plead guilty in a scandal that has threatened embarrassment for the US military on the scale of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse in Iraq, a scandal exposed in 2004. Each of the murder convictions carried a minimum life sentence and the prosecution said Gibbs should be refused parole, turning the disgraced soldier's description of the Afghan civilians as “savages” back on him.
