WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD — Army Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales took the witness stand yesterday at his murder court-martial and admitted he shot an Iraqi during a nighttime raid near Kirkuk last June.

"I pick up my weapon. Pop, pop, pop, pop. Four times," Corrales told a military jury.

He admitted that the man turned out to be unarmed.

But the 35-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier also said he believed it was not an unlawful killing, though it fell into a "gray area" of U.S. troops' rules of engagement.

Two days of testimony wrapped up last night at the Wheeler courthouse. If convicted of premeditated murder by the jury of five enlisted soldiers and four officers, Corrales faces a maximum of life in prison without parole.

The 14-year soldier and father of three is charged with premeditated murder, wrongfully soliciting another soldier to murder an unarmed wounded Iraqi who previously had been shot by Corrales and wrongfully impeding an investigation by causing an AK-47 rifle to be placed near the victim after he had been shot.

A second Schofield soldier, Pvt. Christopher Shore, 26, of Winder, Ga., was convicted in February of aggravated assault after being accused of shooting the Iraqi man upon being ordered to do so by Corrales.

Corrales yesterday spoke animatedly and in detail. He acknowledged that just before the June 23 shooting, during a time when a group of Iraqis was rounded up in the house, he said he would kill the next detainee who turned up positive on a residue test for explosives.

Corrales said he was "pretty fired up" at the time, and was shaking a man, demanding to know where weapons were kept. He said he had told the Iraqi he would kill him as a tactic to get information about weapons.

"I'm going to kill your motherf------ ass," Corrales said he told the man, adding he pushed the man's face to the ground.

The Iraqi smiled and spit at him during questioning, Corrales said.

Corrales admitted hanging an AK-47 rifle around the man's neck, one of two he interrogated.

One of those men — identified yesterday as Saliah Khatab Aswad — was shot a short time later outside.

Corrales said the man he would later shoot had somehow escaped from the house guarded by 16 to 18 U.S. soldiers, although Corrales added he didn't immediately realize that.

All Corrales said he knew was that he encountered an Iraqi in the backyard of the house about 1 a.m.

The San Antonio man said he told the Iraqi in Arabic to "freeze," the "guy did kind of like a jump because I startled him," and Corrales shot him.

But while the prosecution said Corrales' actions added up to premeditated murder, Corrales said he was doing his job as he had been trained.

"I shot him — but not in an unlawful way, I don't feel or believe," Corrales said.

Subsequently, Corrales said he knew the shooting "was in the gray area of the rules of engagement" for U.S. forces.

His attorney, Frank Spinner, earlier in the trial said Corrales acted "reflexively," worrying that a weapon could be near at hand.

The nine hours preceding the shooting had pitted an array of American forces against insurgents spotted planting roadside bombs.

OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters had fired machine guns and Hellfire missiles at a car earlier identified as carrying insurgents, and even though the car blew up, several individuals were seen running into the house that Corrales and his scout platoon later raided.

A parade of fellow soldiers who had been in the scout platoon had testified on Wednesday that Corrales more than once had said he wanted them to kill all fighting-age males on the raid.

Several said Corrales pushed the detainee out of the house. One soldier, Spc. Franklin Hambrick, said the Iraqi whom Corrales shot had his hands up, was confused, and was wondering what was going on.

Hambrick said he turned his head as Corrales raised his M-4 at the Iraqi, then Hambrick heard three to six shots.

Corrales yesterday said Hambrick was lying or mistaken.

Fellow soldiers also testified that the house, backyard and roof of the house had been cleared. No shots were fired during the entry and no weapons were found.

Shore, the soldier who was accused of shooting the Iraqi along with Corrales, said Corrales ordered him to "finish" the Iraqi after Corrales had shot him. Shore said he intentionally missed the man.

Corrales yesterday denied giving that order, but said Shore fired two shots after Corrales shot the Iraqi.

Shore in February was found guilty of aggravated assault. A military official previously said the Iraqi had five gunshots: one in each arm, one in the back, and two in the face. He died about two days later.

The raid had culminated a cat and mouse game with insurgents who had been spotted by aerial surveillance about eight hours earlier working on a roadside bomb.

Lt. Col. Michael Browder, at the time the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry that Corrales belonged to, yesterday said artillery was fired at the insurgents, but missed.

The insurgents fled in a car but were intercepted in the village of al Saheed by OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters, which fired machine guns at the car, Browder said.

The insurgents bailed out before a Hellfire missile destroyed the car, and several were seen entering the house that was later raided.

Browder said the plan was to "shoot a Hellfire missile into the front door," but the helicopters took fire, and a Hellfire missile that was fired down a street killed two children ages 5 and 7 and wounded two teens.

Browder said he saw more people come and go from the house and he opted against a missile or bomb strike.

Corrales, who led 19 other soldiers on the raid that night, likened it to the "Super Bowl" of missions, and said to motivate his soldiers, he told them, "We were going to go in there and kill these motherf-------."

But Corrales likened the talk to a football coach telling his players to rip the heads off opponents.

Asked what Browder had said, Corrales replied that the insurgents had been positively identified, and that Browder wanted "to destroy these guys."

Browder was relieved of command in Iraq, and testified yesterday under a grant of immunity.

An Iraqi interpreter, Essa Ahmed, who was on the mission that day, was flown in from Iraq to testify at Corrales' trial.

The interpreter said none of the soldiers in the house went outside to look after hearing the shots, implying that they knew what was happening.

"Everyone was like shocked," he said.