As Robina took her seat wearing a deep red head covering and a nervous smile, she giggled as any 7-year-old in the spotlight might.
But when the questions began, she recalled how she hid behind her father when a gunman came to their village at night, how the stranger fired and her father died, cursing in pain and anger.
"I was standing behind my father," she testified by video feed from Afghanistan last night during a hearing for the soldier accused of killing 16 civilians, including nine children, in Kandahar Province.
"He shot my father," she said.
One of the bullets struck her in the leg, but she did not realise straight away.
Her testimony came on the second overnight session of the preliminary hearing for Staff Sargent Robert Bales, who prosecutors say slipped away from his base to attack two villages.
The killings drew such angry protests that the US temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.
The stories recounted so far by the villagers have been harrowing. They described torched bodies, a son finding his wounded father, and boys cowering behind a curtain while others...
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