MSNBC/Centcom: ELEVEN American bodies found with Pfc. Lynch

MSNBC | April 2, 2003

[Timesink]

Breaking live. CENTCOM confirms 11 AMERICAN SERVICEMEN found with Pfc. Lynch. They have NOT been identified.

[kcvl]

"I'm not sure where she is, but I'm sure she is being looked at medically to make sure she is alright," said Jean Offutt, spokeswoman for the U.S. military at Fort Bliss, Texas, where Lynch was based.

"If she were wounded, she would be cared for until she were stable and then returned to the United States."

Military sources said on Wednesday U.S. Marines staged a decoy attack on targets in Nassiriya to allow special forces to rescue her from a hospital in the embattled southern city where U.S.-led forces have faced stiff resistance from Iraqi fighters.

"U.S. Marines sent a large force led by tanks and armored personnel carriers to hit targets in the center of the city and to seize a key bridge over the Euphrates while the hospital raid was under way," a military source said.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks announced the rescue at command headquarters in Qatar at around 3 a.m. local time (7 p.m. EST Tuesday), telling reporters in a prepared statement:

"Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq...The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."

Military officials would not discuss the fate of the other captives, but CNN reported that Lynch's rescue team also brought out the bodies of up to 11 people believed to be U.S. soldiers.

Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman for U.S. commander General Tommy Franks, said of the other POWs: "I can't get into operational details, but we have a lot more work to do. We have a lot more POWs that we are still worried about."

Wilkinson said Lynch was rescued around midnight Iraq time (4 p.m. EST Tuesday).

A military source told a Reuters reporter traveling with the Marines near Nassiriya the facility where Lynch was being held was called the Saddam Hospital and was one mile north of the Euphrates river which runs through the city.

The Marines' decoy attack involved a number of targets, including an artillery and air attack on a Baath party headquarters, which the source said was destroyed.

They also hit the home of a local Baath party official, a telecommunications cable repeater station and a headquarters of the Fedayeen paramilitary organization.

"These were all destroyed," the source said, adding that there were no injuries on the Marine side, which met little or no resistance from Iraqi forces.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis said President Bush was informed of the rescue in an afternoon briefing by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and reacted by saying: "That's great."

Offutt said she understood Lynch had spoken with her parents. "They are very happy to hear from her, joyful."

"The fact that she was found gives a lot of the other parents hope," she added.

The military told the family Lynch had "walked into an Iraqi hospital" after going missing, but "we were told nothing else," relative Terri Edwards told Reuters.

[bybybill]

If 1/3 of the frogs want Saddammnn to win tells us that the French are really not very smart. Who needs them?

[kcvl]

Why did David Schuster move to MSNBC?

[Timesink]

If anyone here knows anyone at Fox, now's the time to give them a call. They're all already pissed as hell at MSNBC over Geraldogate; they'd LOVE to rake MSDUNCE over the coals for a couple of news cycles for this.

[EternalVigilance]

My email bounced back. Is it perhaps spelled 'Schuster'?

[Timesink]

Why did David Schuster move to MSNBC?

Where was he before?

[kcvl]

Fox News...

[Timesink]

Fox News...

Ooh yeah, come to think of it, he WAS, wasn't he? He was doing special Hardball-only reports for quite a while before the war started. *dig dig dig* Let's see. He jumped in October 2002.

[EternalVigilance]

I re-sent it under David.Schuster@nbc.com

I'll see if that takes.

[Timesink]

My email bounced back. Is it perhaps spelled 'Schuster'?

No, it's Shuster, definitely. Try @msnbc.com.

[EternalVigilance]

Cr*p.

[kcvl]

He spent a good bit of time in Arkansas reporting on the Monica/Bill Clinton fiasco. I was really surprised to see him on MSNBC. He got a lot of good stuff from Starr's office during that mess.

[kattracks]

11 Other Bodies Found With Rescued POW

By NICOLE WINFIELD
.c The Associated Press

CAMP AS SALIYAH, Qatar (AP) - Eleven bodies were found with prisoner of war Jessica Lynch when the Army supply clerk was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said it was not immediately known whether any of the dead were Americans.

He said the 11 were not killed during the rescue operation. A forensic team will examine the bodies.



04/02/03 04:34 EST

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

CNN now interviewing Centcom spokesman...

[Timesink]

Yeah, I looked around the web a bit. Some of the lesser MSNBC types don't get full-force nbc.com accounts, I guess, but they defintely get msnbc.com accounts.

[EternalVigilance]

OK. I'll tell you in a minute if that worked.

[Timesink]

Thanks, kattracks. What a massive screwup MSNBC made. And they won't even own up to it.

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

CNN's interview with Centcom spokesman just wrapped up.

Spokesman said that 11 bodies were found and it is not known how many are Americans. Tests are being done on the bodies.

Jessica Lynch is being treated at a hospital as we speak. CNN says she had several or multiple gunshot wounds. Jessica may be transferred to Germany or the Comfort Ship in the Gulf or other hospitals in the field. Spokesman sounded upbeat about her condition, though.

[SauronOfMordor]

1100 senior Iraqi Officers should be rounded up, castrated without anesthetic, and left to die.

Wrapping executed Muslims in pigskin worked to quiet down the Phillipeans in the early 1900's. Your idea may work too.

[EternalVigilance]

Seems to have worked:

David.Shuster@msnbc.com