BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty at his court-martial today to killing a severely wounded 16-year-old Iraqi, the military said.

Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was charged with the Aug. 18 slaying in Baghdad's Sadr City. He was expected to be sentenced today.

Horne, a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, Fort Riley, Kan., also pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting another soldier to commit murder.

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 from inside the truck. The victim had severe abdominal wounds and burns and was thought to be beyond medical help.

The criminal investigator had said that the U.S. soldiers had decided that "the best course of action was to put (the victim) out of his misery."

RALEIGH, N.C. - A Marine who claimed he was abducted by anti-coalition forces after he went missing from his unit in Iraq has been charged with desertion.The charges filed Thursday against Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun of West Jordan, Utah, followed a five-month investigation into his June disappearance from a U.S. military camp near Fallujah, Iraq.No date has been set for an Article 32 hearing, one of the first steps toward a possible court-martial.Hassoun was last seen in Iraq on June 19.On June 27, the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera broadcast the photo of Hassoun looking as if he was a hostage, blindfolded and with a sword behind his head. A group claimed to be holding him and was threatening to decapitate him unless detainees in "U.S.-led occupation prisons" were released, Al-Jazeera said.Hassoun turned up in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 8.During fighting last month in Fallujah, U.S. troops recovered Hassoun's personal belongings in a box on the third floor of a three-story commercial building. The property included an identification card, a uniform and a book.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - A National Guardsman who asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a bold question about armor on war vehicles went to the microphone after consulting with a Tennessee reporter.Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts, who is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, wrote about the incident in an e-mail to co-workers sent Wednesday.Pitts said he worked with guardsmen after being told reporters would not be allowed to ask Rumsfeld any questions.Spc. Thomas "Jerry" Wilson, 31, of Nashville, asked Rumsfeld why, after almost two years of war, soldiers were searching dumps for metal to weld on vehicles destined for hostile territory.The question appeared to surprise Rumsfeld and prompted cheers among the soldiers listening to him in a hangar.By The Associated Press