First female US soldier killed in Iraq was a Hopi Indian

WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 05, 2003
A Hopi Indian was the first female US soldier to be killed during the US-British assault on Iraq, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, served with the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas. She was part of a convoy ambushed by Iraqi forces on March 23 near the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah.

Her body was among those found on the grounds of a Nasiriyah hospital while US Special Forces conducted a pre-dawn raid to rescue 19-year-old US Army private Jessica Lynch, held there as a prisoner of war.

Piestewa had been listed as missing in action, but the Pentagon changed her status to killed in action early Saturday after identifying the remains of eight bodies found at the Nasiriyah hospital, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

During the operation to rescue Lynch, 11 bodies were found, nine of them Americans, according to a US Central Command spokeswoman in Qatar.

SPACE.WIRE