"She is in a stable condition. She is receiving medical assessment and treatment," the spokeswoman at the facility in Landstuhl, southwest Germany, told AFP.

She was not able to give further details of Lynch's injuries or whether, as reported, her family were due to arrive later.

The 19-year-old supply clerk was driven to Landstuhl late Wednesday after being flown to nearby Ramstein air base from Kuwait.

According to US media reports, her injuries include gunshot and knife wounds and several broken bones.

The reports said members of her elated family were due to join her at her bedside later Thursday.

Army Private First Class Lynch, a member of the 507th Maintenance Company, was snatched from an Iraqi-held hospital in the southern town of Nasiriyah where she had been held for more than a week.

Iraqi forces had ambushed her company, operating in support of the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, on March 23 after it took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah.

In the firefight that preceded her capture, Lynch was prepared to fight to the death, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Lynch "continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting," the Post wrote, citing a US official.

Lynch "fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers ... firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition," the Post said, citing US officials.

After receiving treatment she will later return to the United States and her home in Palestine, West Virginia.

Landstuhl is the US army's biggest military hospital outside of the United States.

A total of 223 soldiers have been flown to Landstuhl from the Gulf region since war broke out two weeks ago, including 96 with battle-related injuries.

Staff at the centre care for the soldiers in the first week after they are injured, treating physical wounds and psychological trauma before transferring them to the United States or sending them back to the Gulf region.

SPACE.WIRE