White House doles out $50K to families of Afghan victims

Mike Gallagher

Mar 25, 2012 - 10:16

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White House doles out $50K to families of Afghan victims

Afghan villagers pray over the grave of one of the 16 victims killed in a shooting rampage in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province south of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday

The families of each villager killed in the March 11 shootings have been paid close to $50,000 per victim -- more than 115 times the average annual income in Afghanistan -- and $11,000 was awarded to each person wounded, NBC News reported, citing a U.S. official.

The payouts are another attempt by the White House to ease strained relations with the Afghan people, which flared following the buing of Qurans at a U.S. base in February and only got worse after the shootings.

The timeline of the killing spree is still unclear, but based on information from guards, it's suspected that the alleged gunman, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, may have retued to the base after an initial attack, then snuck away to kill again.