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Family celebrates POW's rescue
02/04/2003 12:05 - (SA)
Washington - The family of a 19-year-old US army soldier held prisoner by
Iraq was celebrating her rescue by special operations forces, US
media reported Wednesday.
Private Jessica Lynch, reported missing when her supply convoy
was ambushed in southern Iraq on March 23, was taken out of an
Iraqi hospital by the US commando, US Brigadier General Vincent
Brooks said at a briefing in Qatar.
"The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area,"
Brooks said at US central command's forward planning base.
He said further details "would be released as soon as possible."
According to USA Today, Lynch was rescued from a hospital by a
team of Army Rangers and Navy Seals on Tuesday night and is now being
treated at a coalition military hospital, her father Greg Lynch
told the paper.
The bodies of 11 other US troops were recovered in the
operation, the paper said, citing US central command, CNN and
MSNBC.
The Washington Times reported that Lynch was being treated for
gunshot wounds.
Their identities were not released, and it was not clear whether
the 11 found were the other soldiers from the 507th.
"You would not believe the joys, cries, bawling, hugging,
screaming, carrying on," Pam Nicolais, Lynch's cousin, told USA
Today after news emerged of her release.
"They said it was going to be the biggest party this road had
ever seen," another cousin, Sherri McFee said.
"Everybody was
really worried ... but we all remained hopeful and knew she would
be home."
Hoped to become a teacher
Lynch hoped to become a teacher, joining the Army to ensure she
got an education, according to the paper. Her brother was also in
the forces.
"We are just so, so happy," another cousin Ramona Lynch also
said. "She's just a nice person, an all-American girl, and she's
safe."
It was not clear when Lynch, a native of Palestine, West
Virginia, would return home, her father told the paper.
Lynch had been missing since a convoy she was in was ambushed
March 23 after taking a wrong turn near Nasiriyah, an army official
said.
The US military on Saturday said that seven US servicemen were
listed as prisoners of war in the conflict, which began in the
early hours of March 20 Baghdad time. Another 15 have been listed
as missing.
The Qatari-based Arabic-language television network on March 23
broadcast pictures of five US service personnel it said had been
seized by Iraqi forces.
Those listed as prisoners are two Apache helicopter pilots in
addition to five members of a logistics unit, including a woman,
captured in an ambush near Nassiryah in southern Iraq.
A US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity in
Qatar earlier on Wednesday, said it was an intelligence tip that led
US special operations forces to the hospital in Nasiriyah where
Lynch was being held, USA Today said.
- Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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