The Hindu : PoW rescued in U.S. raid

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

International

International

PoW rescued in U.S. raid

The U.S. prisoner of war, Jessica Lynch, shown in this image from video released by the Department of Defence, being carried by U.S. special forces as she is removed from the Saddam Hospital in Nasiryia, Iraq, on Tuesday. — AP

CAMP AS SALIYAH (Qatar) APRIL 2. During a raid on an Iraqi hospital, the U.S. commandos rescued an American prisoner of war, Jessica Lynch. They also found 11 bodies during the raid, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.

Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said there was "reason to believe" that some of the victims were Americans. Forensic tests were to be carried out on the bodies.

Ms. Lynch (19) was seized after her unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, made a wrong turn on March 23 and was ambushed in the Euphrates river city of Nasiriyah.

A dozen other members of her unit remain unaccounted for, including five listed as prisoners of war.

An intelligence tip led the U.S. special operations forces to the hospital in Nasiriyah where Ms. Lynch was being held, officials said. Capt. Thorp would not confirm reports that troops used a battlefield diversion to slip into the hospital.

He said Ms. Lynch, an army supply clerk, was being treated for her injuries at an American military facility.

No details on her condition or the nature of injuries were available.

"In the same operation we recovered 11 bodies in and around the facility. We don't yet know the identity of those people and forensic experts will determine that," he said.

The 507th Company was attacked during some of the first fighting in Nasiriyah.

Not long after the ambush, five of Ms. Lynch's comrades showed up in a video on Iraqi television being asked questions by their Iraqi captors.

The video also showed bodies, apparently of U.S. soldiers, which led Pentagon officials to accuse Iraq of executing some of its prisoners.

Officials believe the video was made in the Nasiriyah area. Ms Lynch, an aspiring teacher, joined the Army to get an education, her family said. She left a farming community with an unemployment rate of 15 per cent, one of the highest in West Virginia.

More than 70 people gathered at Ms Lynch's parents' home in the small farming community after the Pentagon announced the rescue.

``She's safe in a hospital, she's in good health,'' her father, Greg Lynch Sr., said. — AP

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International