CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar April 5 —
U.S. Central Command on Saturday released the dramatic details of
Pfc. Jessica Lynch's rescue, as the 19-year-old supply clerk, now
safely at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, awaited a meeting
with her family.
Lynch's parents, two siblings and a cousin left their West
Virginia home Saturday to fly to Germany for the reunion with their
daughter. "I can't wait to see her," said her mother, Deadra
Lynch.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Gene Renuart, speaking at a briefing in
Qatar, said a team of Navy SEALs, Marine commandos, Air Force pilots
and Army Rangers carried out the rescue Tuesday in the southern
Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.
While troops engaged the Iraqis in another part of the city, the
rescue team persuaded an Iraqi doctor to lead them to Lynch, Renuart
said.
Lynch, who'd been held since a week earlier when her unit was
ambushed, had suffered a head wound, an injury to her spine, and
fractures to her right arm, both legs, her right foot and ankle. The
rescuers quickly evaluated her medical condition, secured her to a
stretcher and took her to a waiting helicopter.
"Jessica held up her hand and grabbed the Ranger doctor's hand,
and held onto it for the entire time, and said, 'Please don't let
anybody leave me,'" Renuart said. "It was clear she knew where she
was and didn't want to be left anywhere near the enemy."
Meanwhile, the Iraqi doctor told the team there were remains of
other U.S. soldiers nearby, and they were led to a burial site.
Because they had not brought shovels, Renuart said, the team dug up
the bodies with their hands.
"They wanted to do that very rapidly, so they could race the sun
and be off the site before the sun came up," he said. "It's a great
testament to the will and desire of coalition forces to bring their
own home."
The Americans were also looking for Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, commander of southern forces.
He is known as Chemical Ali for leading the 1988 campaign against
rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in which thousands died, many in
chemical attacks.
"On the evening of the attack, he was not located in that
hospital," Renuart said. "That's not to say that we haven't been
tracking him down at some other locations and will continue to do so
until we're pretty confident that he's been eliminated."
Renuart did not shed any new light on how Lynch sustained her
wounds whether she was injured in captivity or when the 507th
Maintenance Company was ambushed March 23.
Eight of the dead soldiers found during the rescue were members
of the ambushed unit, Renuart said. The ninth was a soldier from a
forward support group of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, he said.
All have been transported back to the United States.
The Lynch family got word of the deaths Saturday just before
boarding a plane in Charleston, W.Va. The family broke off a news
conference after being told that seven members of their daughter's
unit were among the bodies retrieved during the raid.
"I wasn't aware of this. ... Our hearts are really saddened for
her other troop members and the other families," Lynch's father,
Gregory Lynch Sr., said before choking up.
Lynch's family has said doctors had determined she'd been shot.
They found two entry and exit wounds "consistent with low-velocity,
small-caliber rounds," her mother has said.
Lynch had a back operation Thursday and surgery for other broken
bones Friday, according to the commander of the hospital, Col. David
Rubenstein. A friend is at her bedside and although she's still
being fed intravenously, she's drawn up a list of her favorite foods
for the hospital: turkey, steamed carrots and applesauce.
"Her emotional state is extremely good. She's jovial. She's
talking with staff," Rubenstein said.
While the U.S. team was in the hospital, Renuart said, they also
found a weapons cache and a large-scale sandbox model depicting U.S.
and Iraqi positions in Nasiriyah.
photo credit
and caption:
The family of rescued POW Pfc.
Jessica Lynch, from left, mother Deadra Dawn Lynch; father,
Gregory Oren Lynch; brother, Gregory Oren Lynch Jr.; and
sister, Brandi Renae Lynch; address the media prior to
boarding a plane in Charleston, W.Va., Saturday, April 5,
2003, en route to Germany, where the former POW was
recuperating. Lynch, 19, was rescued from an Iraqi hospital
Tuesday. Her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was attacked
March 23 when it made a wrong turn in southern Iraq. (AP
Photo/Bob Bird)
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