Baghdad: A US soldier was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to killing a severely wounded Iraqi teenager, the Military said today (Dec 11, 2004).

Staff Sgt Johnny M Horne Jr, 30, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, also received a reduction in rank to Private, forfeiture of wages and a dishonourable discharge.

Horne, attached to Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Riley, Kansas, pleaded guilty to one count of unpremeditated murder and one count of soliciting another soldier to commit unpremeditated murder.

The charges relate to the August 18, 2004 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 neighbourhood 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."

The Military said in a statement that a jury-like panel of seven service members issued the sentence shortly at 11:30 pm yesterday (Dec 10, 2004) after about four hours of deliberations.

Horne is among six Fort Riley soldiers charged with killings in recent months - two for slayings in Kansas and four for deaths in Iraq. Staff Sgt Cardenas J Alban, 29, of Inglewood, Calif, is charged along with Horne in the teenager's killing and is awaiting a court-martial hearing.