AS-SALIYAH, 14 April 2003 — Seven US soldiers captured by the Iraqis were freed by marines yesterday and taken for medical treatment, with two suffering gunshot wounds, officials and news reports said.
“It is good news,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at the US Central Command’s headquarters at Camp As-Saliyah, adding, “They are under observation right now medically.”
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with NBC television: “They are in good health. Two have gunshot wounds but basically they are in good shape.” He said US Marines were approached by Iraqis south of Tikrit and told where the Americans were. “The families of these seven are in the process of being notified,” he said.
The Pentagon raised the death toll among American troops fighting in Iraq yesterday to 115 and said 400 had been wounded in action in the 3-week-old war.
Five American troops remain missing, but the number of prisoners of war was cut to zero after the seven soldiers were rescued by Marines. In its last casualty toll issued on Saturday, the Pentagon listed seven known prisoners of war and 10 missing, a category that generally means it has not been determined definitively whether they are dead or captured.
“I got a report that six or seven people we had listed as missing” were found, Central Command chief and commander of US forces in the Gulf Gen. Tommy Franks told CNN earlier, adding, “I know they’re in good shape and I know they’re in our hands and under our control now.”
CNN, quoting a reporter at the scene, said the seven were taken to a field hospital about 105 km south of Baghdad and were then being flown to Kuwait for further medical testing and debriefing.
CNN said all seven were able to walk on their own, but two appeared to be more seriously injured and limped to the plane at the base, while the other five ran.
Quoting relatives, it said two were the crew of a downed Apache helicopter and at least three were survivors of an ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company soon after the war began on March 20.
The parents of Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young Jr., one of the helicopter pilots, said they recognized their son in video footage shown on CNN.
A Pentagon representative gave them the official confirmation about a half-hour later at their Lithia Springs, Georgia, home, CNN said. “I’m ecstatic,” Ronald Young Sr. was quoted as saying. “The main thing to me is knowing he’s all right,” Young said. “It’s a relief. You just don’t know how much it is. It’s almost like Christmas, New Year’s and everything all rolled into one.”
They said they also recognized Chief Warrant Officer David Williams, who was in the helicopter with Young. They said Williams’ wife told them she also saw him. The families of Sgt. James Riley, Specialist Shoshana Johnson and Specialist Joseph Hudson of the 507th Maintenance Company also said they received official word yesterday that their relatives had been freed, according to CNN.
Riley, Johnson and Hudson were three out of five prisoners of war who were shown talking nervously to Iraqi interrogators on Iraqi and Al-Jazeera television, which brought strong protests from Washington. Another member of the 507th was Private Jessica Lynch, 19, who was rescued by US special forces from Iraqi captivity in a hospital in the southern city of Nassiriyah on April 1. The bodies of eight of her comrades who had initially been listed as missing in action were also found in the hospital.
Franks told Britain’s Sky television, “What I’m told is that someone came up to our marines who were moving along the road headed toward Tikrit, and said, ‘here shortly you’re going to come into contact with a number of Americans and just so you know they’re there’, and so the tip came from an Iraqi and so I believe our guys picked them up on the road.”
The Washington Post said the seven were turned over to the US military by their guards after their officers deserted.
They were rescued near Samarra, a town some 100 kilometers north of Baghdad, the Post said. The guards evidently were deserted by their officers and gave up their prisoners themselves, it added, quoting a US officer in the field.
Six Hurt in Grenade Attack
Meanwhile, six US soldiers were wounded, at least two of them seriously, when an Iraqi paramilitary hurled a hand grenade at them as they removed mortars from a weapons cache south of Baghdad.
Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were carrying mortars into the courtyard of a building in Mahmudiya, 25 km south of Baghdad when a car pulled up from behind the crowd, a man jumped out and tossed a hand grenade at the troops.
Six soldiers were flown by helicopter to hospital and at least 10 more were listed as walking wounded. The 40 some soldiers in the compound also came under fire from three separate positions at the same time as the grenade attack.
“We heard three quick pops. And we all turned around and then boom, that shit knocked me right off my feet,” said Sgt. Travis May, who, like the other soldiers, suffered shrapnel wounds.
The crowd of about 200 people lining a wall around the compound immediately scattered and US soldiers opened fire at the positions where they believed the paramilitaries were hiding.
The assailants escaped, possibly into a nearby mosque less than 100 meters away, the military said. “This was a hit-and-run attack,” said Maj. Brian Pearl. “That grenade was thrown from about 30 meters. That’s not a bad throw at all.”
