"We love you all," one of them said from a balcony at Landstuhl hospital where they stood in uniform.

Shoshana Johnson remained seated. The 30-year-old cook was shot in both ankles during the ambush on March 23 when five of the seven were captured. They were transferred to a Baghdad prison where they were held in individual cells and interrogated.

The two others came from a downed US Apache helicopter.

Images of their questioning that were broadcast on Iraqi televion shocked America and led to accusations from Washington that Baghdad was contravening the Geneva Convention.

Apart from during their capture, they were reported to have said they were never mistreated.

They were found on Sunday about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad by marines heading toward the city of Tikrit.

More than 550 military personnel have been treated at Landstuhl, the US army's biggest hospital outside the United States, since the war on Iraq began on March 20.

SPACE.WIRE