- Families receive $50,000 for each person killed, and $10,000 for each wounded
- U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales has been charged over the massacre
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The United States gave $860,000 to the families of people in Afghanistan killed or wounded in a shooting rampage that is being blamed on U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, two Afghan officials said Sunday.
The money includes $50,000 for each of 16 people who were killed, as well as $10,000 for each of six who was injured, the provincial council members said.
The American official who handed over the money said it was not compensation, but the U.S. government offering to help the victims and their families, Kandahar provincial council member Haji Nyamat Khan said.
But a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, Col. Gary Kolb, said the money was compensation.
Khan, the local official, said the money was paid in Afghan currency.
Bales has been charged with 17 counts of murder, a senior U.S. official has said. Sixteen people were reported killed in the incident two weeks ago. American officials have not explained the discrepancy.
CNN's Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report.
