December 11 2004 at 10:00AM
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Baghdad - A United States infantry sergeant pleaded guilty on Friday to murdering a severely wounded 16-year-old Iraqi youth, the military said.
Staff Sergantt Johnny Horne, 30, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was charged with the murder on August 18 in Baghdad's Sadr City, the scene of fierce clashes between coalition forces and Shi'a rebels allied to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The military said Horne would be sentenced later.
US military officials said the incident took place after US soldiers had opened fire on a rubbish truck they suspected of being used by guerrillas.
The Los Angeles Times quoted local witnesses last month identifying the victim as 16-year-old Qassim Hassan, who was working with relatives collecting rubbish. Six other Iraqis were also killed.
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Horne, from the 41st Infantry Regiment based at Fort Riley, Kansas, also pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting another soldier to commit murder. He was one of six Fort Riley soldiers charged with murder in recent months - two for killings in Kansas and four for deaths in Iraq.
"The convictions stemmed from Staff Sgt Horne's murder of a severely wounded Iraqi civilian in Baghdad's Sadr City district," a military statement said.
Previous military court hearings have heard that several troops fired on a group of Iraqi men placing homemade bombs along a road in Sadr City. Soldiers from the same battalion arrived on the scene to find a burning truck and casualties around it.
According to witnesses, the soldiers, including Horne, tried to rescue an Iraqi casualty from inside the truck. The victim had severe abdominal wounds and burns, and was thought by several of the men to be beyond help.
The criminal investigator had said the US soldiers had decided "the best course of action was to put (the victim) out of his misery".
Earlier this week, a US Army officer used a similar defence, saying he had carried out a "mercy killing".
It is against the Geneva Convention to shoot wounded combatants. Capt Rogelio Maynulet was ordered to face a full court martial for the murder in May of a man wounded as troops pursued Sadr militiamen near Najaf.
Another military hearing of a US soldier charged with murdering an Iraqi in a separate incident in Sadr City also continued
yesterday.
Sgt Michael Williams, 25, of Tennessee, was facing charges of premeditated murder and obstruction of justice. - Sapa-AP
- This article was originally published on page 4 of The Independent on Saturday on December 11, 2004
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