(CNN) -- Count by count, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales on Wednesday admitted to gunning down 16 civilians in a 2012 rampage through two villages near his outpost in southern Afghanistan. Bales pleaded guilty to more than 30 criminal charges, including 16 premeditated murder counts, in a hearing before a military judge. He admitted to slipping away from his outpost in southern Afghanistan and going on a house-to-house killing spree in two nearby villages in March 2012, a massacre that further strained ties between American troops and their Afghan allies. The move spares the 39-year-old Bales the prospect of a death sentence in the killings. But he was unable to offer the judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, an explanation for his actions.
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NEW: Bales hopes plea will bring peace to victims, comrades, lawyer says
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Bales now faces life in prison; a decision on parole will come in August
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He admitted to 16 Afghans and wounding several more in a house-to-house rampage
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The March 2012 killings further strained ties between the United States and Afghanistan
The @placeholder plans to remove combat troops from the country by the end of 2014.