US soldier gets 3 years
2004-12-11 21:55
Baghdad - A US soldier was sentenced to three years in prison for killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager, the military said on Saturday, while insurgents staged attacks in several cities, killing at least 10 Iraqis, including three police colonels, two Shiite clerics and a judge.
Six American soldiers also were wounded in separate attacks in northern Iraq.
Staff Sergeant Johnny M Horne jun, 30, of Wilson, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder.
His sentencing late on Friday included a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonorable discharge.
The charges relate to the August 18 killing of a 16-year-old Iraqi male found in a burning truck with severe abdominal wounds sustained during clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City, an impoverished neighborhood that was the scene of fierce fighting between US forces and Shiite rebels loyal to anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
A criminal investigator had said during an earlier hearing that the soldiers decided to kill him to "put him out of his misery".
A jury-like panel of seven service members late Friday sentenced Horne - who is attached to Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Riley, Kansas - after about four hours of deliberations, the military said on Saturday.
- AP