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October 12, 2012  
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Khadr knew he was targeting Canadians: Ex-U.S. special forces sergeant
By Jessica Murphy, Parliamentary Bureau



OTTAWA – Omar Khadr would have known the bombs he was planting and the combat training he was receiving would have targeted Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, says a special forces sergeant who was one of the convicted terrorist’s victims.

In an exclusive interview with Ezra Levant to air Friday on The Source on Sun News Network, former U.S. Special Forces Sgt. Layne Morris offers his account of the sequence of events that led up to Sgt. Christopher Speer's death and to Khadr and Morris being wounded.

In 2002, Morris was stationed at a military base in Afghanistan's Khost region, a base he said was secured in part by Canadian Forces.

“I wonder if he was conflicted at all to look at Canadians running that base,” Morris said, noting Canadian flags flew over the site. “I wonder if he said to himself: those are my countrymen, I shouldn't be engaged in this type of combat against them.”

On July 27, Morris set out with U.S. military team to secure a nearby compound. U.S. and Afghan troops surrounded the site but were ignored by those inside.


Former US Special Forces Sgt. Layne Morris is seen in this undated photos from Afghanistan. (Handout/QMI Agency)

“When our interpreters started to call out in Pashtun to try to talk to these men inside, they popped up and leaned over the wall and shot the interpreters point blank in the head, killing both of them instantly,” said Morris.

A brief firefight broke out before the U.S. soldiers retreated and waited for air power “to simply bomb the compound into submission,” he said.

“As (the U.S. troops) were going through the rubble, looking for bodies, looking for intelligence materials, Omar, who was hiding in some of the rubble, when the team got close enough, Omar popped up, shot his pistol at them and threw the hand grenade (that killed Speer.)”

Khadr was the sole survivor left in the compound and was badly wounded during the battle. He was captured and later sent to the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was 15 years old at the time.

In 2010, he struck a plea deal in return for an eight-year sentence for five war crimes, including Speer's murder.

He was repatriated to Canada in September and is being held at Millhaven maximum security penitentiary near Kingston, Ont.

A Canadian citizen, he had been petitioning the Canadian government for his return as early as 2005 and was the last Western detainee in Gitmo.



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