Pentagon formally charges child 'enemy combatant'

According to the PBS news program, Frontline, Ahmed was arrested in Pakistan following the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. After his release was negotiated by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrátien, he moved his family to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, where they lived near bin Laden and his family.

According to the Pentagon's charge sheet (PDF), the 14- or 15-year-old Omar Khadr in June 2002 received training in marksmanship, rocket propelled grenades, and explosives in Afghanistan.

The following month, on July 27, Khadr was in a suspected Al Qaeda compound near Khost, Afhganistan that was bombed in a US airstrike. According to the US government's account, as US Special Forces were combing through the compound, Khadr leapt from hiding and hurled a grenade at the troops. The explosion severely wounded Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer and Sgt. Layne Morris. Khadr was shot three times, his wounds subsequently treated by Army medics. Speer died over a week later from his wounds in a military hospital in Germany, leaving behind his wife, Tabitha, and two young children.

That Khadr had been allegedly recruited by Al Qaeda at such a young age raises the questions of whether he ought to be classified as a child soldier rather than an enemy combatant. ABC News interviewed Jo Becker, the Children's Rights advocate for Human Rights Watch, who sees a double standard in Khadr's treatment.

[T]he U.S. has been very inconsistent in how it deals with this issue," says Becker. "For example, the U.S. has provided millions of dollars for rehabilitation programs for children in Africa and other countries," she says. "But if there's a situation where a child soldier may be engaging with U.S. troops, then all of the sudden the U.S. approach is different, and it starts taking a punitive rather than a rehabilitative approach."

A spokesman for the Department of Defense told ABCNews.com that age is not a factor when determining detention.

"We detain enemy combatants who engaged in armed conflict against our forces or provided support to those fighting against us. The fact that juveniles have been used as enemy combatants is an unfortunate reality in many parts of the world," the spokesman said.

Khadr's attorneys have asked that the young detainee's case be resolved politically, much like that of David Hicks, the "Aussie Taliban" who was released from Guantánamo following negotiaions between Australia and the United States. A statement on The Guantánamo Blog, a site run by a law firm representing Khadr, assails the US military tribunals.

"Now is the time for Canada and the U.S. to negotiate a political resolution because the commissions system is incapable of justice. Otherwise, Omar, just barely twenty years of age and a minor at the time of the alleged crimes, is guaranteed to be convicted in one of the greatest show trials on earth. This should not be the legacy of America or Canada."

Military rules require that Khadr be arraigned within 30 days, and that he be tried within 120 days.

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