U.S. soldier sentenced in teen's killing

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A U.S. soldier was sentenced to three years in prison for killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager, the military said Saturday, while insurgents staged attacks in several cities, killing at least 10 Iraqis, including three police colonels, and wounding 14 U.S. soldiers.

The American forces were wounded in separate attacks in northern Iraq, including a car bomb blast that injured eight troops and led to a U.S. warplane dropping a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent position in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Wilson, N.C., pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder.

His sentencing included a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonorable discharge.

The charges relate to the Aug. 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 U.S. forces and Shiite rebels loyal to anti-U.S. 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, Kan. — after about four hours of deliberations, the military said on Saturday.

In fresh violence, a military convoy was struck by a car bomb Saturday morning in Mosul, killing an Iraqi civilian but causing no U.S. casualties.

A second car bomb attack hours later wounded eight U.S. soldiers after they uncovered a weapons cache in Mosul. Militants then fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

"The commanders on the ground felt the attack was heavy enough to call in close air support, and a fighter jet dropped a 500 pound bomb on an insurgent position," military spokeswoman Capt. Angela Bowman said.

Elsewhere, a suspected suicide car bomber wounded two U.S. soldiers in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, while two more were wounded in a car bomb blast near Kirkuk, about 60 miles to the north.

Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb outside of Hawija, near Kirkuk.