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, he said.

But elation at the rescue of the missing soldier was tempered by the discovery of 11 corpses, possibly other US prisoners, in the vicinity of the hospital where Lynch had been held.

"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.

The Washington Times (eds: correct) reported Wednesday that Lynch had gunshot wounds when she was found by special forces troops.

Even so, news of her release brought tears of joy from her family back in Palestine, West Virginia.

"You would not believe the joys, cries, bawling, hugging, screaming, carrying on," Pam Nicolais, Lynch's cousin, told the USA Today newspaper.

"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."

Rushing said Lynch went missing after 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 her 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.

A journalist who travelled in another part of the convoy reported numerous contacts with Iraqi forces as lead vehicles -- the drivers wearing night-vision goggles -- outran their armoured escorts or became disorientated in the desert.

The New York Times reported that Lynch's unit -- responsible for repairing broken down vehicles -- had come under attack from two Iraqi T-55 tanks and around 100 fighters believed to be from the hardline Fedayeen militia.

Five other members of her unit, including another woman, were shown along with a number of unidentified bodies on Iraqi television and the Arab satellite network Al Jazeera, sparking outcry in the United States.

US troops found four bodies, believed to be Americans, in Nasiriyah last week but they have still not been identified.

The US military on Saturday said seven US service personnel were listed as prisoners of war in the Iraq conflict, which began in the early hours of March 20 Baghdad time. Another 15 had been named as missing.

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

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

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