One of Hadi's friends reacted to the sentencing with mixed feelings. "This is justice, but Luma would have hated this," said the friend, a fellow Iraqi translator. "She loved the soldiers. She never would have wanted this to happen to them."
Attorneys for both soldiers appealed to the judge, Col. Denise Lind, to consider the impact of prison terms on their families. Both men are part of the First Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Tex. Hooser, who has served in the Army for eight years, has three young children. Dajani, who said he enlisted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, has an infant daughter. Officers who worked with the accused men testified that both were good soldiers who volunteered for dangerous missions.
Meanwhile Saturday, Internet sites and videos offered claims of hostages being killed and others being released, although none of the reports could be verified.
A video delivered to al-Arabiya television network announced that insurgents had released eight Chinese laborers who had been abducted on a highway Tuesday. The Chinese Embassy in Baghdad said it had received confirmation that the workers had been released but was still trying to locate them, Reuters reported.
Another militant group, Ansar al-Sunna Army, announced on an Internet site that it had killed 15 Iraqi National Guardsmen who had been taken hostage. There was no confirmation of the claim, which was not accompanied by the photos usually offered as proof.
Fifteen guardsmen had been hauled off a bus near the western city of Hit Jan. 14. The web site announced that the guardsmen "confessed to the crimes they have committed with the crusader forces. God's verdict has been carried out against them by shooting them."
Another militant group showed an identification card on an Internet video to support its claim that it had seized a Brazilian man, apparently a contractor abducted Wednesday after working on a power plant in the northern city of Baiji.
Also Saturday, eight Iraqi guardsmen and an Iraqi civilian were injured when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt near the gate of a military camp near Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, the Associated Press reported.
Correspondent Jackie Spinner contributed to this report.
