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Heroine Jessica 'recovering'
03/04/2003 11:22 - (SA)
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| Jessica Lynch is carried off a plane at the US Air Base in Ramstein, southern Germany (Michael Probst, AP) |
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Washington - Jessica Lynch, the United States private dramatically rescued in Iraq by special operations forces, was recovering in a military hospital in Germany on Thursday, as news of her own battlefield heroics began to filter through the media.
The 19-year-old supply clerk was flown from Kuwait to Ramstein, Germany, where she is being treated at Landstuhl military hospital, said US officials.
Her injuries include gunshot and knife wounds and several broken bones, according to media reports.
Members of her elated family were due to join her at her hospital bedside later on Thursday, flying to be with her when fears over her fate after the March 23 ambush of her company turned to joy with news of her rescue.
Army private first class Lynch, a member of the 507th maintenance company, was snatched from an Iraqi-held hospital in the southern town of Nasiriyah where she was held for more than a week, said US military officials.
A senior commander on Wednesday described the rescue of Lynch as "a classic joint operation" by army rangers, marines, air force pilots and Navy Seals.
Continued firing despite her wounds
However, the US military's forward command base here also said that rescuers during Tuesday night's operation had found 11 bodies that appeared to be of American soldiers during the operation.
Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks told a press conference the dead had yet to be identified.
In the firefight that preceded her capture, Lynch - who was in the army to put herself through college - was herself prepared to fight to the death, reported the Washington Post on Thursday.
Lynch "continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting (on) March 23," wrote the Post, citing a US official.
Iraqi forces ambushed her company, operating in support of the advancing 3rd Infantry division, after it took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Being offered a scholarship
Lynch was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the Post said, citing the official who added that initial intelligence reports suggested she had been stabbed to death.
There were no indications on Wednesday, however, that her wounds had been life-threatening.
Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumours" of Lynch's heroics, but had no confirmation, the Post said.
After treatment - she reportedly also has broken limbs - she will later return to the United States and her home in Palestine, West Virginia.
Her father, Greg Lynch, said he was elated at news his daughter had been found alive.
Moreover, in a development late Wednesday, news emerged that a university was offering Jessica Lynch a scholarship to pursue her dream - to become a teacher.
The principal of Wirt High School in Elizabeth, West Virginia, that Lynch attended, announced that Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, had contacted the school district and offered her a full undergraduate and graduate scholarship. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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