Seven US POWs rescued

NEAR KUT, Iraq: Iraqi troops Sunday released seven US POWs — some wounded but in good condition, a surprise development near where US troops were entering Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

Clad in an assortment of tattered Iraqi prison garb and shorts, the soldiers who had been held captive for 22 days clambered out of helicopters to a delighted welcome at an air base in southern Iraq, hours after their release. The seven were taken by helicopter to this base near Kut and flown to a military airport south of Kuwait City. They were later released after medical examinations in Kuwait, an Army nurse said. The nurse refused to identify the injured soldiers or give details about the examinations. But Marine pilots who evacuated the POWs from Iraq said Army Spc Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss, Texas, had been shot in the ankle, and Spc Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas, had been shot in the elbow.

Johnson, the only woman among the freed prisoners, had limped in slippers on her way to a transport aircraft after her release and wore a bandage on her ankle. They — along with Sgt James Riley, 31, Army Spc Joseph Hudson, 23, and Army Pfc Patrick Miller, 23 — were all members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company. The five were taken prisoners when Iraqis ambushed their convoy March 23 outside the southern city of Nasiriyah. Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D Young Jr, whose Apache helicopter was forced down March 23, clutched a bottle of water as he walked toward the C-130 for the flight to Kuwait, then grinned widely as a soldier shook his hand. His father, back in Lithia, Georgia, watched shaky video footage of his son on CNN. “It’s him, and I’m just so happy that I could kiss the world!” Ronald Young Sr said. “It’s him! It’s definitely him.”

Maj Chris Charleville, a pilot with the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 268, said the freed prisoners were ecstatic on the way out of Iraq. Army Pfc Patrick Miller, 23, came into the cockpit and thanked the pilots profusely. “He was just grabbing us, telling us that he loved us and hugging the crew chief,” said Charleville, who commanded the evacuation. Capt Matt Belisle, pilot of the second aircraft that carried five POWs, said the US soldiers had been in a hideout before the helicopter arrived. One of the escorts told the helicopter crew that they had been searching buildings in that town, stormed a palace and found the POWs inside. Shortly after their capture early in the war, the seven had been shown on Iraq’s state-run television — giving a human face to the peril confronting prisoners of war. Also among the seven was Chief Warrant Officer David S Williams, 30, who was in the Apache with Young.