Looking at the linked article its fairly clear that the bullets went through a backpack first.
Also some of them obviously hit sideways, or were in tumble from hitting other objects first. Needless to say the laptop certainly stopped the bullets.
Did it save the soldier life? Don't think so not unless the only thing he was wearing was a backpack.
Then again he might have been one of these guys...
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...ge=2&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:28&tx=74&ty=86
If the rounds were tumbling they would've had to gone through something first or been at a fairly long range or been shot from a really short barrel from a good distance.... The reason why I won't buy into that is the obvious...
If the rounds were tumbling and he got hit 8 times..... that is some pretty good accuracy under the conditions which the bullets would be tumbling....