U.S. soldier admits to killing wounded Iraqi teen

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty Friday to killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager in what investigators say may have been a mercy killing, the latest of several similar incidents that have undercut efforts by the United States to win support among Iraqis and defeat a rampant insurgency.

The conviction of Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., comes almost a month after the Nov. 13 killing of another wounded Iraqi found lying in a Fallujah mosque among the bodies of several people killed during a weeklong operation to retake that city from insurgents.

Horne is the first of four soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Riley, Kan., to face court-martial on charges of murdering Iraqis during fighting in Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City in August.

Human rights groups have condemned the illegal killings of Iraqis -- either civilians or wounded fighters -- by the U.S. military, saying such acts amount to violations of international humanitarian rights and should be dealt with as war crimes.

The U.S. military has defended its record, saying out of the more than 400,000 soldiers who have deployed to Iraq since the war began, only a few illegal killings have come to light.

Plea bargain agreement

In a plea bargain Friday, Horne pleaded guilty to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder under Articles 118 and 81 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Horne had originally been charged with the more serious offenses of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of another soldier to commit murder.

The sentence, which may come today, is solely at the jury's discretion. Had Horne been convicted of the more serious offensives, he could have faced life imprisonment or death.

Horne is among six Fort Riley soldiers charged with killings in recent months -- two for slayings in Kansas and four for deaths in Iraq.

The military tribunal heard witness testimony that troops fired on a group of Iraqi men placing homemade bombs along a road in Sadr City. Other soldiers arrived to find a burning truck and casualties around it.

Witnesses said the soldiers, including Horne, tried to rescue the teenager from inside the vehicle, but decided he was beyond help because of severe burns and abdominal wounds. A criminal investigator said the soldiers decided "the best course of action was to put [the victim] out of his misery."

Two other soldiers from the same unit this week faced Article 32 hearings -- the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing -- over a Sadr City killing in August.

An Article 32 hearging was held Thursday for Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, of Memphis, Tenn., on charges of premeditated murder, obstruction of justice and making a false official statement. Also charged is Spc. Brent May, 22, of Salem, Ohio, who had a two-day hearing and is awaiting a ruling on whether he will be court-martialed, receive a lesser penalty or be acquitted.

Meanwhile, the U.S. command said two soldiers died Thursday and four were injured when an AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed into a UH-60 Black Hawk chopper that was on the ground at an airfield in the northern city of Mosul. A U.S. Marine was also killed in action in volatile Anbar province west of Baghdad.