GI Charged In Kuwait Grenade Attack

A soldier from the 101st Airborne Division has been charged with murder in a grenade attack on officers' tents in Kuwait that killed two.

The charges against Sgt. Hasan K. Akbar, 32, were announced Friday afternoon. Fort Campbell officials said Akbar was charged March 25 with two counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder, under military law.

Akbar was also charged with one count each of aggravated arson of an inhabited dwelling and misbehavior as a sentinel while receiving special pay.

Akbar was returned to the United States last Friday and was being held at an undisclosed military facility.

Akbar is the only person charged in the grenade attack that killed two U.S. officers and wounded 14 other soldiers on March 23. He was transferred from Kuwait to the military detention center in Mannheim, Germany, after the attack, then to the United States.

Officials are still investigating the attack, which killed Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa., and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, of Boise, Idaho.

Akbar faces the possibility of the death penalty, writes CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. But even though his court-martial will probably take place more quickly than it would in the civilian courts, it almost certainly won't take place until potential witnesses against him can come back to the U.S. to testify. That may take months. In the meantime, Cohne says it wouldn't surprise him to see some sort of a plea deal in the case.