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Taliban detainee thought to be American coming to U.S.

U.S. troops on patrol at Camp X-Ray, the prison camp built for Afghan war detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A detainee thought to be an American Taliban fighter will be transferred to the United States from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Government sources said that Yasser Esam Hamdi, 22, will remain in military custody for the time being.

Although Pentagon officials had indicated that the transfer could take place on Thursday, they now say the transfer from Guantanamo Bay will most likely take place on Friday.

No reason was given for the delay.

Hamdi will be flown from Cuba to Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia "for jurisdictional reasons," the sources said earlier Thursday. From Dulles, he will be transferred to a Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia.

Officials said they had not confirmed that Hamdi, who produced a American birth certificate, holds U.S. citizenship. However, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said officials felt "pretty strongly" that he is an American.

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Sources said Wednesday that Hamdi was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Saudi parents. The family moved back to Saudi Arabia when he was a toddler.

Hamdi was picked up last November after a foiled prison uprising in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif.

"We are working with the Justice Department on determining his status and determining what we do with him," said Clarke, who compared the case to that of accused American Taliban John Walker Lindh. Walker Lindh also was captured in the Mazar-e Sharif uprising and later transferred from military to law enforcement custody.

He faces charges of conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, providing support to terrorist organizations and using firearms and destructive devices during crimes of violence. His trial will begin August 26 in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

"As we've seen with the Walker case, U.S. citizenship does make it a different case," Clarke said. "And based on these factors, we're determining what are we going to do with him and where does he go."

Asked why it has taken so long to ascertain Hamdi's status, Clarke said, "It's been very hard with a lot of these detainees to determine their actual identity. Many were trained to resist interrogation. It's a very slow, very methodical process."

She added it is "too soon to speculate" on what charges, if any, Hamdi would face. But if his citizenship is confirmed, he would not be tried in a military tribunal.

The White House has said U.S. citizens detained during the campaign in Afghanistan would not be tried by military commissions, and the Supreme Court has ruled that tribunals cannot try citizens if civilian courts are open.

Hamdi's transfer to Virginia also heightens the likelihood he will soon be transferred from military custody -- and suggests authorities strongly believe he is a U.S. citizen. Officials have indicated that military tribunals will take place outside the United States, in part to keep the proceedings outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. criminal court system.

-- CNN Correspondents Barbara Starr and Bob Franken and Producer Mike Mount contributed to this report.