US officer guilty of murder

2004-12-10 16:07

Baghdad - A US officer who shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi civilian to "put him out of his misery" was found guilty of murder on Friday, as Iraq's political parties won more time to register candidates for next month's elections.

The move came a day after the long-oppressed majority Shiites unveiled a major alliance likely to leave them with the lion's share of the vote in the January 30 polls for a transitional government.

The number of American troops killed in action in Iraq meanwhile climbed over the 1 000 mark as debate grew in the United States over complaints by soldiers that they are going into the country without properly armoured vehicles.

At a court martial, Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne was found guilty of the unpremeditated murder of a severely wounded Iraqi civilian in Baghdad's Sadr City district in August. He was due to be sentenced later Friday although a pre-trial agreement limits his penalty to 10 years in jail.

The murder of Kassim Hassan took place after US soldiers spotted a garbage truck apparently dropping homemade bombs in Sadr City, the capital's most populous Shiite Muslim neighbourhood, the court heard.

The soldiers started shooting at the truck, which caught fire, and a severely wounded Hassan pulled himself out of the vehicle and fell to the ground.

"When I found him, I came to the conclusion that he needed to be put out of his misery," Horne said. "I fired a shot into his head and his attempts to breathe ceased."

Horne was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder with two other soldiers, Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban and Second Lieutenant Erick Anderson, who have yet to stand trial.

- AFP