Rescued US soldier put up fierce fight

Rescued US soldier Jessica Lynch shot several Iraqi soldiers prior to her capture, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, The Washington Post reported yesterday, citing US officials.

The 19-year-old Private First Class continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her, one official told the newspaper.

"She was fighting to the death," the official was quoted as saying. "She did not want to be taken alive."

Private Lynch, who has two broken legs and one broken arm, was with a US Army maintenance convoy ambushed by Iraqi forces on March 23 in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.

One official said she was stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the newspaper said.

US defence officials said they were aware of the report, but could not immediately confirm the details of her capture.

Officials told the newspaper that the precise sequence of events was still being determined and further information would emerge as Private Lynch is debriefed.

The report said the information about Private Lynch's ordeal was based on battlefield intelligence which officials said came from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in whose reliability has yet to be assessed.

Private Lynch, from Palestine, West Virginia, arrived at the US Ramstein air base in southwestern Germany early yesterday aboard a US Air Force C-17 transport plane for treatment at an American military hospital. She was held as a prisoner of war by Iraq for more than a week until US special forces freed her on Tuesday.

The special forces also recovered the bodies of two US soldiers in the raid at the Saddam Hospital north of the Euphrates river which runs through Nassiriya.

Private Lynch was one of 15 soldiers listed missing, captured or killed when a 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company convoy made a wrong turn and came under attack from Iraqi tanks and fighters.

Five of the captives, but not Private Lynch, were shown on Iraqi television as well as the bloodied bodies of up to eight men, prompting President George W. Bush to warn that anybody mistreating US prisoners would be punished as "war criminals".