Army Sergeant First Class Trey Corrales, 35, was found not guilty by a military jury of premeditated murder, ordering a fellow soldier to "finish off" the mortally wounded man and planting a weapon near his body.

The 14-year army veteran, who had faced life in prison if found guilty, said he was going to be promoted to master sergeant and planned to return to duty in Iraq this autumn as part of the 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.

"Right now I am in ... operations," he said. "I'll be helping plan those operations, but I'll look forward to moving back out with one of the maneuver companies and going back out, being a soldier that I am."

The military jury deliberated for just over seven hours on Friday before delivering its verdict.

Prosecutors called the killing a case of cold-blooded murder, and said Corrales had told his elite scout platoon before boarding a helicopter that they were to kill all the "military-age" men they encountered in the raid on a home near the northern oil hub of Kirkuk on June 23 last year.

At the home, where two or three suspected insurgents dashed after it was believed they had have fired on an army helicopter, Corrales vowed to kill the next prisoner turning up positive for gunpowder residue.

That man turned out to be the victim, Salih Khatab Aswad, who was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

"He wanted a kill, and he got his kill," said lead prosecutor, Captain Laura O'Donnell.

Defense attorneys however argued that the killing was done in self-defense and was part of a high-risk mission to reduce further civilian casualties.

A number of fellow scout platoon soldiers, including several testifying at the start of the trial Wednesday, said Corrales ordered them to kill all the men inside the suspected safe house, but they did not comply.

The Army Court of Criminal Appeals said 16 soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder in the killings of Iraqi citizens.

Three of them have received life sentences, while eight of the 16 were convicted of a lesser charge, including Corrales' former co-defendant, private Christopher Shore, 26, who was convicted in February of aggravated assault and is serving a 120 day sentence.

Shore said he fired his weapon but intentionally missed the man after Corrales ordered him to "finish him off."