NILES LATHEM and ALY
SUJO
April 3, 2003
The one thing they knew for sure
was that they had to get her out of there.
Intelligence agents had been
hearing confusing and frightening reports from
various sources about 19-year-old POW Jessica Lynch -
that she was shot, that she was close to death, that
she was in the hands of Saddam's torturers.
But all of the informants agreed on
one thing: the 19-year-old U.S. Army supply clerk was
being held in the Saddam Hospital in downtown
Nasiriyah.
So they hatched a secret mission
straight out of a Tom Clancy novel - with high-tech
surveillance, an armada of U.S. helicopters breaking
through the desert darkness, and live night-vision
footage beamed back to Central Command in Qatar of
the operation in progress and its successful
conclusion.
"It was a midnight
ballet," said one Special Forces soldier,
describing the complex rescue.
The mission took place Tuesday
night - nine days after Lynch and several other
members of the 507th Maintenance Company were
captured in an Iraqi ambush - but it had been set
into motion days earlier.
For days, intelligence agents had
been gathering information from pilotless Predator
drone aircraft, interrogations of Iraqi POWs,
electronic intercepts and direct observation by
Marine special reconnaissance troops who slipped
behind enemy lines and watched the hospital for
several days.
The most hopeful pieces of
intelligence came from Iraqi civilians. One passed a
note, in English, to a Marine that read, "She's
still alive."
Another told an NBC reporter,
"There's a woman in the Saddam Hospital who's an
American soldier. Please make sure the people in
charge know."
Intelligence also revealed that the
hospital was a central operations facility for Hassan
al-Majeed, one of Saddam Hussein's most-trusted
lieutenants - who earned his grisly nickname,
"Chemical Ali," for his infamous gas
attacks on the Kurds in 1988.
He has been a key target for U.S.
troops since the invasion of Iraq began.
Once the CIA confirmed Lynch's
whereabouts, the coordinates were fed to Qatar. A
decision was made to bring Jessica out - and
hopefully capture al-Majeed.
The mission began with a diversion.
U.S. Marines launched a major
combat operation with artillery and mortars moving
into Nasiriyah, while other troops advanced to wipe
out squadrons of Fedayeen guerrillas in the northern
and southern sections of the city, which has been the
scene of the most violent fighting of "Operation
Iraqi Freedom."
Tanks and armored personnel
carriers moved in and hit targets in the center of
town. As the Iraqi units fought back, they left the
Saddam Hospital relatively unguarded.
Under cover of night, combat
search-and-rescue units - whose activities are among
the military's most closely guarded secrets - went to
work.
Units from Marine reconnaissance,
Army Rangers, Navy SEALs and Air Force Special Forces
swooped in low and fast on long-range Pave Low
helicopters backed by AC-130 gunships, which can fire
30 rounds a second.
Also circling was a reconnaissance
plane providing live, overhead footage.
Fanning out from the helicopters,
U.S. Rangers secured the perimeter of the hospital -
taking heavy fire from nearby buildings.
Meanwhile, SEALs - armed with stun
guns, silencers and night-vision goggles - crashed
through the doors and moved in to "extract"
Lynch.
There was no shooting inside the
building, officials said.
Lynch was put on a stretcher and
loaded into a waiting Black Hawk helicopter, a folded
American flag resting on her lap and a weary smile on
her face.
U.S. forces also captured several
Iraqis, one of whom led soldiers to two bodies in a
morgue and several others in a grave site outside.
The bodies - some of which appeared to be those of
U.S. troops - were taken out by helicopter.
No American was injured in the
operation.
Civilian patients and medical staff
were seen emerging from the hospital with their hands
up. Most were allowed to leave, or to return to the
building for treatment.
The entire rescue took two hours -
all of it beamed live to top Central Command
officials in Qatar, who watched the green-tinted,
night-vision footage taken by a combat TV crew.
Pentagon sources said Lynch's legs
and one of her arms had been broken, and that she had
one gunshot wound and a stab wound.
She apparently suffered those
wounds in a valiant battle when she was caught.
According to the Washington Post,
Pentagon sources said that Lynch fought back
fiercely, and even shot several Iraqi soldiers, after
her unit was ambushed. She fired until she ran out of
ammunition, desperately trying to avoid being taken
alive, the sources told the paper.
An Iraqi pharmacist who worked at
the hospital told Britain's Sky television that Lynch
was basically healthy, but that "every day I saw
her crying about wanting to go home."
The pharmacist, who gave his name
only as Imad, said Lynch knew the U.S. troops were on
the other side of the Euphrates River and "she
kept wondering if the American army was coming to
save her."
Lynch was flown late yesterday to
Landstuhl Regional Military Medical Center in
Germany, from where she was expected to make her way
back to the States.
The mission's only negative was the
failure to capture al-Majeed. A special SEALs
"hunter-killer" team went in for him, but
he was not there.
But that didn't detract from
euphoria over the nearly flawless rescue of the
Palestine, W.Va. native.
"It was a classic joint
operation done by some of our nation's finest
warriors dedicated to never leaving a comrade
behind," said Centcom Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.
"These guys were pros. If
there were any hairy moments, they would take care of
them . . . Some brave souls put their lives on the
line to carry this out."
Brooks said ammunition, mortars,
maps and a terrain model were found at the hospital,
along with "other things that made it very clear
it was being used as a military command post."
As news of the rescue continued to
flow through her hometown, more than a week of worry
quickly turned into a gleeful celebration with
blaring sirens and fireworks as Lynch's family and
friends rejoiced.
"I thought at first it was an
April Fool's joke," said her father, Greg Lynch
Sr., who lavished praise on the Special Forces who
rescued his daughter.
"We are just real proud that
they risked their lives to go in and save our
daughter and we hope all the rest of the troops come
home safely, too," he said.
Lynch was one of 15 soldiers listed
as missing, captured or killed when a 507th Ordnance
Maintenance Company convoy made a wrong turn outside
Nasiriyah and came under attack from Iraqi tanks and
fighters.
Five of the captives, but not
Lynch, were shown on Iraqi television as well as the
bloodied bodies of up to eight men, prompting
President Bush to warn Iraqis they would be punished
as war criminals if they mistreated U.S. prisoners.
Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman for U.S.
commander Gen. 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."
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A Hero Gets -- and
Gives -- Thanks
Fellow Lawyers Honor Iraqi Who Saved a U.S. POW
washingtonpost.com
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 9, 2003; Page A01
WILMINGTON, Del., May 8 -- For more
than a month, he had been a hero in hiding, an
ordinary Iraqi who risked his life to save an
American prisoner of war. Today, wearing a brown suit
and a patch over an injured left eye, the Iraqi
lawyer who brought rescuers to Jessica Lynch made his
debut appearance before a grateful American audience.
Mohammed Odeh Al Rehaief, who has
been living in suburban Washington for almost two
weeks, was honored by the Delaware State Bar
Association at a ceremony here, receiving a special
award that cited him for displaying "the highest
ideals of lawyers" by assisting a
"defenseless American citizen." He declined
to give an acceptance speech because of a constraint
of modern American celebrity -- a pending book deal.
Six weeks ago, Rehaief played a key
role in the rescue of Army Pfc. Lynch, the
20-year-old West Virginian captured in the Iraqi town
of Nasiriyah in a March 23 ambush on her convoy. With
Iraqi forces still in control of that city, Rehaief
made clandestine contact with U.S. Marines stationed
six miles away to tell them that Lynch was being held
in the hospital.
Lynch, now being treated at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center for her injuries, has no
recollection of what happened between the time her
Army unit was captured and when she awoke in the
Iraqi hospital, military officials said today.
[Story, Page B9.]
The slightly built Rehaief, who
sported a blue tie emblazoned with the U.S. flag,
appeared deeply moved by the tribute from fellow
lawyers.
"Thank you so much," the
32-year-old said repeatedly, gripping the award -- an
engraved silver platter -- with two hands, as his
wife, Iman, and 5-year-old daughter looked on.
Rehaief did not make further
remarks and was not available for interviews due to a
potential book contract, according to Tom Kalil, who
is putting up the Rehaiefs at his Northern Virginia
home.
"Unfortunately, for
contractual reasons, [Rehaief] is not permitted to
speak except to say thank you today," Kalil told
the gathering of lawyers. "He's in the middle of
a book deal."
Rehaief told reporters in Iraq that
he decided to help Lynch after seeing her slapped by
one of her captors while he was at the Nasiriyah
hospital. As U.S. bombs fell all around Nasiriyah,
Rehaief twice in two days made the perilous journey
from the town to the U.S. outpost, gathering
information about Iraqi security forces at the
hospital and transmitting it to the Americans.
He also supplied them with
hand-drawn maps, which U.S. Special Forces troops
used when they rescued Lynch from the hospital April
2. On one of those secret trips, Rehaief's car came
under allied fire and his left eye was injured.
Kalil, an executive manager at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, offered to host the
Rehaief family after reading about the Iraqi man's
role in saving Lynch. The family arrived in the
United States in mid-April and was given political
asylum April 28.
Despite their limited English, the
Rehaiefs have been enjoying suburban American life,
Kalil said in an interview. They have eaten at
McDonalds, attended a private Kentucky Derby party
and gone shopping. "We had to get them clothes,
shaving supplies, toothbrushes. They had
nothing," Kalil said.
One thing they had brought with
them, Kalil said, was a U.S. flag that Rehaief had
asked for and been given by the Marines he met in
Iraq.
Kalil said his family also took
Iman Rehaief recently to the hairdresser. Her
husband, Kalil said, "was quite struck with her
hairdo. He said, 'Where is my wife?' "
"They can't be thankful
enough," Kalil said of the Rehaiefs.
Rehaief has accepted a job with the
Livingston Group, a Washington lobbying firm headed
by former U.S. representative Bob Livingston (R-La.),
who was instrumental in bringing the Rehaief family
to Washington.
The 200 judges and lawyers
attending today's annual Delaware bar association
luncheon at the Hotel du Pont gave Rehaief a standing
ovation when he accepted his award. The bar also
presented him with a $1,000 check and made him an
honorary lifetime member.
U.S. Sen. Joseph R. Biden
Jr.(D-Del.) was to have presented the award but could
not attend at the last minute because of Senate
business. His senior counsel, Claire De Matteis, made
the presentation on Biden's behalf.
"To see Jessica Lynch suffer
and to have done nothing was not in your
nature," De Matteis said. "And that speaks
volumes about you as a human being. . . . What you
did was extraordinary, and America is grateful."
Citing security concerns, the bar
association asked news media organizations covering
the event not to show the faces of Rehaief and his
family.
Iman Rehaief, who was a nurse at
the hospital where Lynch was held, beamed as her
husband was honored. She wore a blue suit and a
headband in her dark hair. Their daughter, dressed in
a blue polka-dot dress with a matching hat, clutched
a teddy bear.
Kalil told the audience that
Rehaief's uncle had been a member of Saddam Hussein's
ruling Baath Party but that his father had refused to
join. Rehaief has not been able to communicate with
his father or his six siblings since Lynch's rescue
and is extremely worried about them, said an official
of the bar association who spoke with Rehaief.
Friends of Rehaief have said he is
in constant pain from his eye injury, and that was
apparent today, as he often cupped his left hand over
his eye.
On Monday, Rehaief underwent
surgery at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda to remove a
tiny metal fragment that had caused
"significantly depressed vision" in his
left eye, according to Barrett Katz, professor and
chairman of the department of ophthalmology at the
George Washington University Medical Center.
Katz said he was asked to look at
Rehaief's injury, which involved damage to the
retina.
The surgery was performed by T.
Mark Johnson of the Bert M. Glaser National Retina
Institute in Baltimore, who is on the faculty in
Katz's department.
The three-hour operation went well,
but it is "too early to know" how much of
Rehaief's sight will be restored, Johnson said.
Katz said he found Rehaief to be a
"lovely, charming, open, funny,
interesting" person.
"A lovely guy -- especially
given that he is a lawyer," the physician added.
Kalil said he is putting up the
Iraqi family in a 2,000-square-foot "granny
apartment" on his property. He said he felt an
instant affinity for Rehaief when he read about him
in the newspaper because both he and Rehaief are
lawyers, are married to nurses and have 5-year-old
daughters. In addition, Kalil's mother is from
Lebanon, an Arab country.
Kalil and his wife, who have four
daughters, do not speak Arabic. But he said his
parents do and have been acting as interpreters. He
said Iman Rehaief has enjoyed cooking Middle Eastern
food for the host family.
The Rehaiefs are Shiite Muslims,
and their hosts are Eastern Melkite Catholics.
When Rehaief arrived in Washington,
"he was totally blind in one eye" because
of his injury, Kalil said.
But he added that Rehaief has
"no grudges" about the injury. "He
once said, 'God bless George Bush and grant him long
life and the wisdom of Solomon,' " Kalil said.
Kalil called Rehaief "one of
the most moral, ethical persons I have ever met in my
life. He sees all of us as children of God. . . . Now
that he's in my home, I feel privileged to know
him."
© 2003 The
Washington Post Company
Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting 11 days ago, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Hussein Hospital in Nasiriyah, although U.S. officials said that at least some of the bodies are believed to be those of U.S. servicemen. Two of the bodies were found in the hospital's morgue, and nine were found in shallow graves on the grounds outside.