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U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO, Cuba — A secret document accidentally released by the U.S. military Monday raises questions about whether someone other than Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr could have thrown a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan.

Comprising a U.S. investigator’s report of his interview with the operative who wounded Khadr, the document reveals a second alleged al-Qaeda fighter was both alive and still fighting about the time the grenade was thrown.

The operative also testified Khadr had his back facing him when he hit the Canadian with two bullets. This could be significant because, the document additionally reveals, the U.S. soldier killed in the grenade attack had been behind the U.S. operative.

However, the document concludes that while the operative did not see Khadr throw the grenade, he believes the Canadian did it.

Officials for the military commission hearing Khadr’s case repeatedly called for the document’s return after realizing it had been attached to other court papers distributed to reporters.

They claimed it contained sensitive information and also that Khadr’s defence team had wanted none of the information revealed.

But Khadr’s lead military defence lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, told reporters he had no objections to the document’s release.

“This is a process that is designed to take place outside public view,” Kuebler said. “It’s not that the government shouldn’t be able to protect information when there is a legitimate need … [rather] it’s the government’s overuse of classification.”

The drama unfolded after Khadr’s defence lawyers presented an array of arguments calling for dismissal of the war crimes and other charges against the Canadian.

Central to the bid is a claim Khadr, who was 15 at the time of the firefight, is protected by international law that says child soldiers should not be prosecuted as war criminals.

The military judge hearing the case will rule later on the arguments.

Khadr’s lawyers revealed late last year that the commission’s prosecutors had admitted to long knowing about a witness who could disprove the Pentagon’s claim the Canadian was illegally fighting American troops.

The U.S. operative whose testimony appears in the newly revealed document is not that witness, said Kuebler. But he added it could raise doubt about Khadr’s culpability in the grenade death of army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer.

“One of the myths that’s grown up around this case is that Omar Khadr must have thrown the hand grenade because Omar Khadr was the only [person] alive in the compound … and the fact is that’s just not true,” the lawyer said.

“There was at least one other person alive, and fighting, when Omar Khadr supposedly hurled this hand grenade that killed Sgt. Speer.”

The prosecution had apparently given the defence full access to the document, but Kuebler said he’d agreed it could be withheld from public release because it had been marked FOUO — meaning For Official Use Only.

Officials speaking on behalf of the commission suggested there might be repercussions if reporters repeated the information in the document, but said they would not force its surrender.

Canwest is withholding such information as names of special agents and units that are mentioned, as requested by the U.S. military.

The operative interviewed for the report is in any event identified only by the code OC-1. Given he was centrally involved with the U.S. forces that captured Khadr, he could have been a member of the U.S.’s crack Delta Force, or even a paramilitary with the Central Intelligence Agency.

He and Speer were in a five-vehicle convoy that joined U.S. and Afghan militia forces July 27, 2002, as they battled al-Qaeda operatives in an Afghan village compound, the report says.

There was a decision to storm the compound after air bombardment, and OC1 and Speer were also part of the lead operatives. Shots were fired at them from an alleyway as they moved forward.

“As the fire continued [OC-1] saw a hand grenade lobbed over the corner wall that led to the alley,” the report says.

It describes how he ran across the alley to avoid the grenade, firing as he went, but adds he learned only later it had wounded Speer in the head.

“Speer was behind him when the grenade was in the air,” the report says.

OC-1 advanced, killing a man he saw with an AK-47 close to him, causing dust to rise from surrounding rubble.

“When the dust rose he saw a second man sitting up, facing away from him and leaning against brush,” the report says. “This man, later identified as Khadr, was moving.”

The report describes how OC-1 fired two rounds “both of which struck Khadr in the back.”

The report says OC-1 believed Khadr and the man with the AK-47 rifle were the only two men alive at the time of the assault. It also states he believe Khadr threw the grenade because the “nature of the … lob was inconsistent with being thrown by someone who was shooting.”