(Washington Post) - Mohammed, 32, went to visit his wife, a nurse at the hospital in Nasiriyah, when he noticed the ominous presence of security agents. A doctor friend told him an American soldier was being held there and took him to a first-floor emergency wing where he pointed through a glass interior window to a young woman lying in a bed, bandaged and covered in a white blanket. Inside the room with her was an imposing Iraqi man, clad all in black. Mohammed watched as the man slapped the American woman with his open palm, then again with the back of his hand. "I decided to go to the Americans and tell them about this," he said. Mohammed walked six miles out of town, approached some Marines with his hands raised, and said, "I have important information about woman soldier in hospital." The Americans sent him back to the hospital twice to gather more information, and he and his wife drew six maps by hand. In the end, a Special Operations force of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and Air Force personnel rescued the injured Pfc. Jessica Lynch, one of the few times an American prisoner of war has been successfully rescued in the last half century.
2003-04-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive