A file photo of two Iraqis being held by a US soldier in Sadr City.

BAGHDAD, December 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An American occupation soldier received only a three-year prison term after confessing to the murder of an unarmed and wounded Iraqi civilian, the US army said Saturday, December 11.

Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne was convicted Friday, December 10, of the unpremeditated murder in August of Kassim Hassan, 16, in Sadr City, Baghdad’s most populous Shiite neighborhood, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He was originally charged with premeditated murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge as part of the pre-trial agreement.

Horne was also found guilty of conspiracy with two other soldiers, who have yet to stand trial, to commit murder.

The incident is a grim reminder of the shooting dead of an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a mosque in the Western Baghdad city of Fallujah by a US marine.

US NBC pool correspondent Kevin Sites, who filmed the grisly scene, said three other wounded Iraqi prisoners, who did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way, were killed in the mosque.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the mosque killing, saying it was tantamount to “a war crime.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour also pressed for an immediate probe into the deliberate killings of wounded people and civilians in Iraq.

Mercy Killing

Horne, who was demoted to the rank of private, ordered to forfeit all pay and handed a dishonorable discharge, told the court martial he killed the Iraqi civilian to “put him out of his misery.”

According to the court’s documents, US soldiers spotted a garbage truck allegedly dropping homemade bombs in Sadr City, the then scene of fierce battles between the occupation forces and fighters loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr.

Horne's unit 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 told the court.

“I fired a shot into his head and his attempts to breathe ceased.”

A forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Horne said that he had “lost his sense of professional distance from victims ... he showed signs of being emotionally overwhelmed ... there is no indication he is prone to violence.”

Horne’s is one of about a dozen cases in which American soldiers are facing trial over the killing or abuse of Iraqi civilians, said the BBC News Online.

Three other soldiers from Horne's regiment, the 41st Infantry, have been charged over killings.

Staff Sgt Cardenas J Alban is facing court martial in the same case as Horne, while Sgt Michael Williams and Specialist Brent May attended hearings on another Sadr City killing.

An army captain, Rogelio Maynulet, was ordered earlier this week to face a court martial over the killing of an Iraqi man near the holy city of Najaf in May.

Several US soldiers, seeking political asylum, told Canadian immigration officials they could no longer tolerate killing innocent civilians  in Iraq and treat the Iraqis as terrorists.

Washington’s main war alley, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, turned down Wednesday, December 8, demands from eminent British figures to open an independent inquiry into the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the start of the US-led war on Iraq.

Forty-seven influential figures, including a number of former British ambassadors and bishops, urged Blair in a letter made public the same day to agree to such an inquiry.

A study published in October by a respected British medical journal, The Lancet, estimated that over 100,000 civilians -- half of whom women and children -- have lost their lives since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.