Guantanamo's Child Soldiers: Files Reveal Many Inmates Were Minors - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Guantanamo's Child Soldiers: Files Reveal Many Inmates Were Minors - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The Guantanamo files reveal many of the inmates in the controversial detention camp were under 18 at the time of their capture and that the charges against them were often based on hearsay. Even detainees who US interrogators admitted were innocent had to wait a long time before being freed.

The file reads like a description of a fighting machine. Omar Ahmed Khader, who was given the prisoner number US9CA-000766DP, was a skilled fighter. While training in Afghanistan, he learned to detonate mines and blow up bombs, not to mention "configuring IEDs for remote detonation using hand held devices."

And the man had used his skills well, according to his risk assessment written by US interrogators in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp -- a document which SPIEGEL has seen and which has now been made public by the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks, together with 778 other files.

"Detainee admits to having participated in several mining operations and harassing attacks against US Forces," the file reads. He is even alleged to have killed an American soldier with a grenade.

The detainee did not appear to regret his actions, however. "Detainee has never expressed any genuine remorse for the killing of that soldier," the file reads. On the contrary, while in Guantanamo he grew "increasingly hostile towards his interrogators and the guard force," despite being willing to cooperate. "He remains committed to extremist Islamic values."

Everything in the file makes the detainee sound like a hardcore jihadist. With one exception: the date of birth. Omar Ahmed Khader was born on Sept. 19, 1986. The detainee was only 17 years old at the time when his file was created.

'Understands the Gravity of His Actions'

Omar Ahmed Khader was a child soldier. According to his file, his own father was close to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. He "encouraged" his teenage son to travel to Afghanistan to take part in the fight against the US.