The heroic tale of Jessica Lynch, the teenage United States Army
soldier rescued from Iraqi captivity in a televised commando raid, has
been largely debunked by a military investigation.
The 15-page report dismissed lurid media accounts - passed to US
reporters by military officials - that Private Lynch fought back fiercely
as her supply convoy was ambushed in the central Iraqi town of Nasiriyah
on March 23. It had been claimed that she fired until her ammunition ran
out before being overpowered, shot and stabbed by her captors.
Instead Private Lynch suffered "horrific injuries" when the Humvee in
which she was riding was struck by enemy fire, and crashed into a
broken-down lorry at 70kmh.
She survived "principally because of the medical attention she received
from the Iraqis", a Pentagon source told The Washington Times.
Early reports also referred to her supply convoy being ambushed by
Iraqi forces. But the report describes how a series of blunders by a
commanding officer led the lumbering, 13-vehicle convoy directly into
Nasiriyah, a well-defended Iraqi town that would not fall to the Americans
for another week.
The newly promoted Captain Troy Kent King misread his orders and took a
series of wrong turns into the town, past waving Iraqis at military
checkpoints.
As the convoy attempted two successive U-turns, army vehicles broke
down, ran out of petrol, got stuck, and collided with each other, while
Iraqi fire poured in. Many of the Americans' weapons jammed, possibly due
to poor maintenance.
Of the 33 soldiers who entered Nasiriyah, 11 were killed and seven
captured, and one died in captivity, the report said. It did not touch on
allegations of summary executions or mistreatment, which are being
investigated separately.
The army report assigns no blame to Captain King, saying he committed a
"navigational error caused by the combined effects of the operational
pace, acute fatigue, isolation and harsh environmental conditions".
Private Lynch remains in a US military hospital just outside
Washington, and reportedly remembers nothing of her ordeal.
Private Lynch's daring rescue by US special forces - filmed by the
military and released in time for prime-time television news programs back
home - sealed her status as the pre-eminent good news story of the
conflict. Several fictionalised TV movies of her story are in the
works.
The Telegraph, London
