US POW rescued in daring midnight raid on Iraqi hospital

7.00pm

US special forces rescued a female US army soldier held captive for 10 days and recovered the bodies of two other soldiers in a midnight raid on an Iraqi hospital, officials said today.

The rescued soldier was identified as Private First Class Jessica Lynch, 19, from Palestine, West Virginia. She was with a maintenance convoy ambushed by Iraqi forces on March 23.

Captain Jay La Rossa, spokesman for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said Lynch had two broken legs and one broken arm, but was stable and in good condition.

La Rossa said special forces also found the bodies of two US soldiers and eight Iraqis. He said the identities of the Americans were not known but they were thought to be among those ambushed with Lynch's group last month.

Military sources said US Marines staged a decoy attack in Nassiriya to allow special forces to rescue Lynch from the hospital in the southern city where US-led forces have faced stiff resistance from Iraqi fighters.

"US Marines sent a large force led by tanks and armoured personnel carriers to hit targets in the centre of the city and to seize a key bridge over the Euphrates while the hospital raid was under way," a military source said.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks announced the rescue at command headquarters in Qatar at around 3am local time (noon NZT), telling reporters in a prepared statement:

"Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a US army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq...The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."

Lynch was one of 15 soldiers listed missing, captured or killed when a 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company convoy made a wrong turn and came under attack from Iraqi tanks and fighters.

Five of the captives, but not Lynch, were shown on Iraqi television as well as the bloodied bodies of up to eight men, prompting President George W Bush to warn Iraqis they would be punished as "war criminals" if they mistreated US prisoners.

Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman for US commander General Tommy Franks, said of the other POWs: "I can't get into operational details, but we have a lot more work to do. We have a lot more POWs that we are still worried about."

"This is good news today but we need a lot more good news."

Wilkinson said Lynch was rescued around midnight Iraq time (9am NZT).

A military source told a Reuters reporter travelling with the Marines near Nassiriya the facility where Lynch was being held was called the Saddam Hospital and was 2km north of the Euphrates river which runs through the city.

The Marines' decoy attack involved a number of targets, including an artillery and air attack on a Baath party headquarters, which the source said was destroyed.

They also hit the home of a local Baath party official, a telecommunications cable repeater station and a headquarters of the Fedayeen paramilitary organisation.

"These were all destroyed," the source said, adding that there were no injuries on the Marine side, which met little or no resistance from Iraqi forces.

"America doesn't leave its heroes behind. It never has, it never will," Wilkinson said of the operation.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis said President Bush was informed of the rescue in an afternoon briefing by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and reacted by saying: "That's great".

Jean Offutt, spokeswoman for the US military at Fort Bliss, Texas, where Lynch was based, said she understood Lynch had spoken with her parents. "They are very happy to hear from her, joyful."

"The fact that she was found gives a lot of the other parents hope," she added.

The military told the family Lynch had "walked into an Iraqi hospital" after going missing, but "we were told nothing else", relative Terri Edwards told Reuters.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war