Seattle defense Attorney John Henry Browne confirmed on Friday that the soldier suspected of gunning down 16 Afghan women and children is his client, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales from Lake Tapps.

Bales has not yet been charged, and military officials had maintained throughout the week that it is policy not to release a name until charges have filed. The Army flew Bales Friday from Kuwait to its only maximum-security prison, a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Bales, who has received sniper training, is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, of the 2nd Infantry Division, based at Lewis-McChord. His battalion has been dispatched to Iraq three times since 2003.

KIRO 7 quotes Brown as saying his client had been injured twice while deployed to Iraq, first sustaining a concussion in a vehicle accident caused by an improvised explosive device, then suffering a battle-related injury requiring surgery that cost him part of one foot.

According to KIRO 7, Brown said that when Bales he was being sent to Afghanistan late last year, the 11-year veteran did not want to go

.Military officials say the staff sergeant arrived in Afghanistan in December. On Feb. 1 he was assigned to a base in the Panjwai District, near Kandahar. His job was to work with a village stability force that matches special operations troops with villagers to help provide neighborhood security.