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Charges Reduced in Iraq Killing

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From Times Wire Services

A U.S. tank company commander accused of killing a critically injured Iraqi will be court-martialed on charges of assault with intent to commit murder and dereliction of duty, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.

The charges against Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, 29, of Chicago, carry a maximum combined sentence of 20 1/2 years, said Maj. Michael Indovina.

During Maynulet’s Article 32 hearing -- the equivalent of a civilian grand jury investigation -- witnesses testified that the man had been wounded and part of his skull was missing when Maynulet saw him. A fellow officer said Maynulet told him he then shot the man out of compassion, and some soldiers have described the incident as a “mercy killing.”

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Maynulet was initially charged with murder, but the commander of the 1st Armored Division, Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, decided Monday to proceed with the lesser charges.

Maynulet’s defense attorney, Capt. William Helixon, could not be reached for comment.

Maynulet’s hearing was one of several war-related cases underway.

In Toronto, a former U.S. Marine staff sergeant testified Tuesday that his unit, fearing suicide bomb attacks, killed at least 30 unarmed civilians at roadblocks during the Iraq war in 2003, and that Marines routinely shot wounded Iraqis and killed them.

Jimmy J. Massey, a 12-year veteran, said he left Iraq in May 2003 after a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress. He said he and his men shot a man who had his hands up trying to surrender, and shot some women and children at the roadblocks. Massey said he had complained to his superiors about the “killing of innocent civilians,” but that nothing was done.

Massey, 33, of Waynesville, N.C., was the chief witness at a refugee board hearing in a bid by a U.S. Army deserter, Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, to win asylum in Canada after he fled from Ft. Bragg, N.C., rather than go to Iraq. Hinzman, 26, has said that he wants to avoid committing war crimes.

“We take such allegations very seriously,” Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Douglas Powell said at the Pentagon. “And Jimmy Massey, who is a former staff sergeant, out of the Corps, has made these statements before in the press. They’ve been looked into, and nothing has been substantiated.”

In Iraq, meanwhile, a final witness testified Tuesday in the case of a U.S. soldier accused of murdering an Iraqi man and making a false statement regarding the incident.

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The U.S. military said a decision is expected by Sunday on whether to court-martial Spc. Brent May, 22, of Salem, Ohio, who is charged with the August murder of an Iraqi civilian in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood.

As the legal cases proceeded, violence continued around Iraq.

In Mosul, gunmen bombed two churches Tuesday. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Smoke billowed from one of the northern city’s Armenian churches. One of its oldest Chaldean churches was ablaze and a wall shattered. The attackers were not identified.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, an American soldier was gunned down while on patrol in Baghdad, the military announced. It also said a Marine died in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad.

A top Iraqi official accused the country’s neighbors of doing too little to stop foreigners from joining the insurgency.

In a speech to the Iraqi National Council, the deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, didn’t single out any governments, but noted that Iraqi police had arrested a Syrian driving a car bomb packed with artillery shells and other explosives.

Iraqi leaders have repeatedly called on their neighbors -- particularly Syria and Iran -- to guard their borders more closely against infiltration.

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