Brooks appeared at an early morning press briefing to announce the successful "rescue of a US Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq."

"The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area," Brooks said here at US Central Command's forward planning base.

He said further details "would be released as soon as possible."

The reswcued prisoner is Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch, a member of the 507th Maintenance Company who has been missing since a convoy she was in was ambushed March 23 after taking a wrong turn near Nasiriyah, an army official said.

The US military on Saturday said that seven US servicemen were listed as prisoners of war in the conflict, which began in the early hours of March 20 Baghdad time. Another 15 have been listed as missing.

The Qatari-based Arabic-language television network on March 23 broadcast pictures of five US service personnel it said it had been seized by Iraqi forces.

Those listed as prisoners are two Apache helicopter pilots in addition to five members of a logistics unit, including a woman, captured in an ambush near Nassiryah in southern Iraq.

SPACE.WIRE