AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (REUTERS) — U.S. special forces rescued a female U.S. Army soldier in a daring overnight raid from an Iraqi hospital after she was captured in an ambush 10 days ago, military officials said.

The rescued soldier was identified as Private First Class Jessica Lynch, 19, from Palestine, WV, and was with a maintenance convoy ambushed by Iraqi forces March 23.

They said she was rescued from a hospital in the embattled southern city of Nassiriya, where U.S.-led forces have faced stiff resistance from Iraqi fighters.

She was said to be doing well, but CNN reported that Lynch had suffered multiple gunshot wounds at some point during her ordeal in Iraq that made it hard to move her.

“Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq,” Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters in a prepared statement.

“The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area,” Brooks told a news conference convened at around 3 a.m. local time at command headquarters in Qatar for the U.S. and British forces invading Iraq.

Lynch was one of 15 soldiers listed missing, captured or killed when a 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company convoy made a wrong turn and came under attack from Iraqi tanks and fighters.

Five of the captives, but not Lynch, were shown on Iraqi television as well as the bloodied bodies of up to eight men, prompting President Bush to warn Iraqis they would be punished as “war criminals” if they mistreated U.S. prisoners.

Heroes not abandoned

Military officials would not discuss the fate of the other captives, but CNN reported that Lynch’s rescue team also brought out the bodies of up to 11 people believed to be U.S. soldiers.

Jim Wilkinson, a spokesman for U.S. commander General Tommy Franks, said of the other POWs: “I can’t get into operational details, but we have a lot more work to do. We have a lot more POWs that we are still worried about.”

Wilkinson said Lynch was rescued around midnight Iraq time from a hospital in Nassiriya. Military commanders at war headquarters in Doha stayed up late to follow the operation through to completion, he said.

Television reports said U.S. special forces, including Navy Seals and Army Rangers with help from the U.S. Marines, conducted the rescue, but no other details were available.

“America doesn’t leave its heroes behind. It never has, it never will,” Wilkinson said of the operation.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis said President Bush was informed of the rescue in an afternoon briefing by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and reacted by saying: “That’s great.”

Relatives of Lynch back home said they were told she was “alive and well” and were awaiting a phone call from her.

The military told the family Lynch had “walked into an Iraqi hospital” after going missing, but “we were told nothing else,” relative Terri Edwards told Reuters.

Interviewed on CNN from the woman’s hometown, Lynch’s kindergarten teacher, Linda Davies, said, “They’ve (the family) been told she’s doing really well and will be calling them later tonight. People are blowing horns, sirens are going off, there are fireworks going off everywhere.”

A spokeswoman for the U.S. military at Fort Bliss, Texas, where Lynch is based, told Britain’s Sky television: “I understand that she has spoken with her parents. They are very happy to hear from her, joyful.”

“The fact that she was found gives a lot of the other parents hope. They are praying that their loved ones will be returned as well,” she said.