Private Jessica Lynch, reported missing when her supply convoy was ambushed in southern Iraq on March 23, was taken out of an Iraqi hospital by the US commando, US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said at a briefing in Qatar.

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

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

According to USA Today, Lynch was rescued from a hospital by a team of Army Rangers and Navy SEALs Tuesday night and is now being treated at a coalition military hospital, her father Greg Lynch told the paper.

The bodies of 11 other US troops were recovered in the operation, the paper said, citing US Central Command, CNN and MSNBC.

The Washington Times reported that Lynch was being treated for gunshot wounds.

Their identities were not released, and it was not clear whether the 11 found were the other soldiers from the 507th.

"You would not believe the joys, cries, bawling, hugging, screaming, carrying on," Pam Nicolais, Lynch's cousin, told USA Today after news emerged of her release.

"They said it was going to be the biggest party this road had ever seen," another cousin, Sherri McFee said. "Everybody was really worried ... but we all remained hopeful and knew she would be home."

Lynch hoped to become a teacher, joining the Army to ensure she got an education, according to the paper. Her brother was also in the forces.

"We are just so, so happy," another cousin Ramona Lynch also said. "She's just a nice person, an all-American girl, and she's safe."

It was not clear when Lynch, a native of Palestine, West Virginia, would return home, her father told the paper.

Lynch had 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 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.

A US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Qatar earlier Wednesday, said it was an intelligence tip that led US special operations forces to the hospital in Nasiriyah where Lynch was being held, USA Today said.

SPACE.WIRE