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The officers were testifying against Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a Muslim soldier whose Article 32, or pretrial, hearing started here Monday. Akbar is accused of killing an Army and an Oregon Air National Guard officer in the attack.

In addition, he faces three attempted murder counts — one for each tent he allegedly hit with a grenade — arising from the wounding of 18 others, in a field camp at 1 a.m. local time March 23.

A soldier whose name was not released lost his leg in the attack, said Maj. Trey Cate, an Army spokesman.

Inexplicably, Akbar allegedly ran past the tents, which were in a row of six and mostly occupied by officers, and threw a grenade at each, according to testimony. Then he allegedly opened fire with an as-yet unidentified weapon.

Legs, arms, feet, hands and necks were pierced by flying shrapnel ; disabled soldiers were sprawled on the ground or the tents' wooden floors bleeding and calling for help, according to the testifying officers.

Other soldiers ran around summoning medical help, and tried to figure out what happened and restore order. Smoke and the acrid smell of explosives wafted over the camp.

Four days earlier, George W. Bush had given Saddam Hussein and his two sons the ultimatum to get out of Iraq. The mood at the camp had been tense and edgy because of the impending war, threatened Iraqi missile attacks and drills for chemical attacks.

An Army major who was in the second tent testified that he saw a black soldier toss a grenade into his tent and shout, “We're under attack, sir.” An Air Force officer in the same tent said the warning shouted was, “Sir, we're under ground attack.”

“I thought that choice of words, ‘ground attack,’ was really odd,” said Air Force Capt. Mark Wisher, of the 19th Air Support Operations Squadron, which is attached to the 101st and based at its headquarters at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Wisher then described the horrific scene around him:

“I remember feeling a blast going up against the tent,” then weakness overtook his body.

“If you've ever fainted before — things get foggy, the senses come back slowly. I remember doing a quick check to make sure all my limbs were still there.”

A buddy — Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, who was killed — was laying next to Wisher on his left side, propped up on his right elbow. “He was reaching out to me, yelling something. Actually, he wasn't yelling, he was screaming. His neck — he had blood spurting out of his neck.

“He was conscious for 10 seconds while I was with him. Then his eyes rolled back into his head and he lost consciousness,” Wisher said.

Stone and a score of others were medically treated; the most seriously wounded were flown to a field camp at Camp Wolf in southern Kuwait, which has a hospital, then onto Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Defense lawyers grilled the other officer in the second tent, Army Maj. Verner Kiernan, who said he was positive that the soldier who sounded the warning about the attack in the tent was black, although he could not positively identify him as Akbar.

“I could tell from his voice he was African-American,” Kiernan testified. “He must have stuck his head partway in [the tent] because I saw an African-American in uniform.” Two seconds later, a grenade exploded in the tent and set it on fire, he said.

Capt. David Coombs, one of Akbar's four Army lawyers, pressed Kiernan on how he could be so sure the soldier was black if he didn't get a clear look. Kiernan replied that he had “an indelible impression on my mind it was a black American soldier.”

During the day-long hearing, Akbar appeared focused and concentrated, fixing a stern stare on the witnesses while taking notes on a steno pad. But shortly before lunch break, his eyelids drooped and closed and he seemed to be dozing off.

No friends or relatives of his were in the courtroom.

The Article 32 is expected to last through Friday and will feature testimony from 39 witnesses, mostly defense witnesses, Army public affairs officers said.

During cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses, defense lawyers asked questions about prejudices soldiers have toward Muslim American soldiers and the anti-malarial drug, Larium, which is given to soldiers in that part of the world and is said to cause violent behavior.

Article 32s do not have judges; they have hearing officers. Akbar's hearing officer is Army Reserve Col. Patrick Reiner, who in civilian life is an assistant U.S. attorney in Iowa.

Besides Stone, Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert also was killed in the attack.

Maj. Kenneth Romaine of the 101st, who was in the first tent and was shot in the hands and thigh, testified that he rode to Camp Wolf in an ambulance with Siefert, comforting him by telling him he would be all right.