Baghdad ? The former commander of a U.S. Army sniper team testified Friday that he ordered one of his soldiers to kill an Iraqi who had stumbled on their hiding place, saying that was the only way to ensure the safety of his men in hostile territory.

Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, who was a staff sergeant at the time of the killing last spring but was later demoted, gave his testimony on the opening day of a court-martial hearing a murder charge against Sgt. Evan Vela.

Another member of the sniper unit testified that the soldiers had been pushed to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion before the May 11 killing of Genei Nasir al-Janabi.

Hensley said that he and the other members of the sniper team had all fallen asleep, then awoke to find an Iraqi man squatting about three feet from them.

Hensley said he ordered the Iraqi to lie on the ground and was searching the man when he saw “military-aged men” who he thought were carrying weapons about 100 yards away.

He said the Iraqi on the ground began yelling and he decided that killing the man was the only way to keep the sniper hideout from being discovered by what he believed was a group of approaching insurgents.

“I told Sgt. Vela to pull out his 9-mm (pistol) and ‘crack it.’ I told Vela to shoot,” said Hensley, who was acquitted in November of murder charges in this shooting and two earlier killings but was convicted of lesser charges. He received immunity for testifying Friday.

When asked why he didn’t kill al-Janabi himself, Hensley said: “Sgt. Vela happened to be the guy with the pistol. The Iraqi’s head was at his (Vela’s) feet. I would have gladly shot him myself.”

Military prosecutors say the killing of al-Janabi – along with two other slayings April 14 and April 27 – occurred near Iskandariyah, a mostly Sunni Arab city 30 miles south of Baghdad.

Vela, from St. Anthony, Idaho, also is charged with planting an AK-47 on the dead man’s body in an attempt to cover up what happened.

Mustafa Ghani al-Janabi, al-Janabi’s 17-year-old son, testified that he had been detained by the soldiers along with his father. He said that after about an hour, the soldiers let him go, but kept his father.

During a break outside the court-martial at Camp Victory, near Baghdad airport, the boy said Hensley and Vela “destroyed my family’s future because of what they did.”

He said he thought the court proceedings were fair, but added that if no one was found guilty in his father’s death, “then I wouldn’t say it is a just system – I would say it is a game.”