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Date Posted: 22:30:33 04/01/03 Tue
Author: eom
Author Host/IP: 216-80-74-233.d.enteract.com / 216.80.74.233
Subject: everybody see this already?

NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, a prisoner of war whose unit was ambushed near this city south of Baghdad March 23, was rescued from an Iraqi hospital early Wednesday, U.S. military officials announced.

Lynch, 19, who had been listed as missing, suffered multiple serious gunshot wounds in the ambush that led to her capture and went through "quite an ordeal," Pentagon sources said. She is in stable condition.

The sources said the rescue mission had been planned for several days and involved a joint special operations team backed by U.S. Marines.

They also were searching for Ali Hassan al Majeed, a cousin of Saddam Hussein known as "Chemical Ali," accused of masterminding gas attacks on Kurdish villages in 1988, one source said.

"There were other people [Iraqis] there we were interested in getting," a military source said, some of whom may have been captured.

Marines staged an offensive in Nasiriya as a diversion while Lynch was rescued from a hospital by a special operations unit, CNN Correspondent Jason Bellini reported from the scene. The hospital was described as a Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary stronghold.

U.S. forces knocked out the city's lights just before midnight. Shortly afterward, several explosions were heard near the hospital, said CNN Correspondent Alessio Vinci, who is with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and witnessed part of the operation.

Marine tanks and armored vehicles approached the hospital under the cover of darkness, he said.

The Americans encountered moderate resistance from inside the hospital and a nearby building, and Lynch was taken from the hospital in the first few minutes of the operation, Vinci said.

In the diversion, Marines attacked Saddam's paramilitaries in a block-by-block assault as Marine Harrier jets pounded hostile positions, targeting the headquarters of Saddam's Baath party, Bellini reported.

The paramilitary squad members sometimes dress in civilian clothing to hide in the city of Nasiriya, only to "come out of the woodwork" sporadically to attack the American troops, Bellini reported.

Bellini is accompanying the artillery component of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is part of the 1st MEF.

The orders for the rescue mission came from the head of the U.S. Central Command, one official said. The rescuers arrived by helicopter in early evening, secured the building by gunfire and forced their way inside.

"General [Tommy] Franks ordered this operation, and it was a success," said Jim Wilkinson, a Central Command spokesman.

"She's safe in coalition hands, and I'm sure she's happier than she was," he said. "America does not leave heroes behind, and there are other heroes we want to go get."

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