The Marines' rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch on April 1st owes its success to the complicity of a daring Iraqi citizen, who became incensed when he saw an Iraqi
colonel slap the 19-year-old Army supply clerk.
CNN recounts the intriguing tale, based on an article written by Sgt. Joseph R. Chenelly and posted on the Marines' Web site: A man only identified as Mohammad visited Saddam Hussein Hospital where his wife worked as a nurse. Noticing extra security, he asked what was
happening. He was told that an American female soldier was being held. With the help of a friend who was a doctor at the hospital, Mohammad found Jessica Lynch's room where he saw the Iraqi colonel slap Lynch twice. "My heart stopped," he said. "I knew then I must help her be saved. I decided I must go to tell the Americans."
He walked to a Marine checkpoint six miles away and told a Marine he had "important information about Jessica." He said the Iraqi doctors planned to amputate Lynch's leg. "She would have died if they tried it," he said. The Marines asked him to return to the hospital to get more information about her location. "I went to see the security," he said. "I watched where they stood, where they sat, where they ate and when they slept." For two days he stalked the captors and then reported back to the Marines with five maps he and his wife made, pinpointing the room. He told them the security layout, reaction plan, and times that shift changes occurred.
His actions did not go unnoticed. Iraqi paramilitary forces stormed Mohammad's home in Nasiriya but his family had already fled to a neighbor's house. Mohammad is now in a secure location along with his family, according to the Marine Corps Web site.
