Several captured US soldiers 'recovered' in Iraq

AS SAYLIYA CAMP - US forces have recovered "six or seven" missing or captured US soldiers in Iraq who are in good shape, US war commander Gen. Tommy Franks said tonight (NZT).

"They're in good shape and I know they're in our hands and under our control now and that's very good," he told CNN from war headquarters in the Gulf state of Qatar.

"What I don't know is whether they're from the ones we had listed as prisoners of war or whether they're from the missing category."

He said he hoped to have more details within several hours.

CNN reported earlier that US forces pushing north from Baghdad had found six US prisoners of war who were now safe.

The Pentagon's most recent figures list 10 troops as missing and seven as prisoners.

US special forces rescued captured 19-year-old Jessica Lynch in the city of Nassiriya on April 1, in what officials said was the first rescue of a US prisoner from behind enemy lines since World War II.

She had been held for nine days after her maintenance company convoy made a wrong turn and came under Iraqi fire.

Some 110 US soldiers have been killed and about 400 wounded in the war so far.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war