Canadian Guantanamo inmate set for military commission

US officials are to try one of the youngest detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, a Canadian accused of killing a US soldier, in a military tribunal, attorney general Eric Holder said Friday.

Rumors swirled Friday that Omar Khadr, who was just 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 for allegedly killing a US soldier, was to be transferred to the United States for trial.

But Holder said: "We'll look at that matter. At this point it's one of the cases designated for commission proceeding. We will as that case proceeds see how it should be ultimately treated."

He was referring to the military commissions set up to try "war on terror" suspects at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Khadr is the last westerner being held at the camp, where he has been incarcerated since October 2002 and is awaiting trial on charges of murder, conspiracy and support of terrorism.

The US government alleges Khadr was the lone survivor of a four-hour US bombardment of an Al-Qaeda compound in Khost, Afghanistan in 2002, who rose up from the rubble and killed a US sergeant with a grenade.

A Canadian court has ordered Ottawa to repatriate Khadr, who has denied throwing the grenade that killed the soldier.

Canada's high court was Friday examining a government request to review the lower court order to repatriate the young Canadian, now 23, who was born in Toronto to a family with strong ties to Al-Qaeda.

His Egyptian-born father, Ahmed Said Khadr, a suspected Al-Qaeda financier, was killed in a shootout in October 2003 with Pakistani forces.