Afghan tribal elders are to decide the fate of a 14-year-old boy suspected of killing a US soldier, according to sources in the Pakistani border town of Miranshah.
The sources said today the elders in eastern Khost province are to decide at a tribal council, or
jirga
, whether to hand the teenager to the US military.
The slain special forces soldier, identified as Sgt Nathan Ross Chapman (31), last week became the first US military casualty from hostile fire in the country. He was apparently killed in an ambush.
The soldier was part of a 25-member fact-finding mission in eastern Paktia province to verify reports by locals that US planes had hit civilian targets in Khost's Mata Chinah area, the private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) has said.
Nine other US troops and a CIA agent have died in or near Afghanistan as part of the war sparked by the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
A CIA agent was also wounded in last Friday's exchange of fire near the town of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan, a US official in Washington said.
Pakistan's Nawa-i-Waqtnewspaper reported eight US military helicopters landed in Khost yesterday, bringing in US army officials who were surveying the area and examining caves for signs of bin Laden.
Searchers had found heavy weapons, including one or two tanks, inside some of the caves, officials said.