Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch, 19, a member of the 507th Maintenance Company, was rescued from an Iraqi-held hospital in the southern town of Nasiriyah after being held for more than a week, the officer said.

"According to initial reports from last night's rescue mission, 11 bodies were found at or near the hospital rescue site," Lieutenant Josh Rushing said from the US Central Command forward base here.

"We are trying to identify their remains and more information will be released when available."

Rushing said Lynch was receiving medical treatment but he did not specify how she had been injured or under what circumstances she had been held in the town some 350 kilometres (215 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Quoting US military sources here, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Lynch had gunshot wounds when she was found by special forces troops.

Rushing said she had been missing since an Iraqi ambush on a convoy on March 23 near Nasiriyah, a stronghold of hardline paramilitary forces fiercely loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

It is believed Lynch's section of the convoy took a wrong turn down a desert track during an exhausting overnight drive through the desert, in what for many of the troops was their first experience of war.

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.

Those listed as prisoners are two Apache helicopter pilots in addition to five members of Lynch's logistics unit, including another woman.

Lynch had been on the missing list because her whereabouts were unknown until hours before Tuesday night's raid, the Times reported.

SPACE.WIRE