FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - An American soldier faces a court martial in Germany
 Thursday over the shooting death of a six-year-old Albanian boy in Kosovo last year.

 Private First Class Nicholas E. Young is charged with negligent homicide and dereliction of
 duty. He is accused of fatally wounding Gentrit Rexhepi after firing his machinegun in error
 while on peacekeeping duties in the Yugoslav province.

 Young, who was 19 at the time of the shooting on July 10, faces up to three-and-a-half years
 in jail if convicted. The court martial at an American base at Giessen, north of Frankfurt,
 could go on until Tuesday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

 NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeeping troops were helping repair a school in the
 village of Gornja Slatina in southeast Kosovo when Young's machinegun went off.
 Prosecutors allege that he pulled the trigger to check that the safety catch was on and
 ricochets hit the boy. In August, another soldier on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo, former
 U.S. Army Sergeant Frank Ronghi, was sentenced to life in prison for sodomizing and killing
 an 11-year-old Albanian girl.