www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/07/sprj.irq.jessica.lynch.doctors.ap -> www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/07/sprj.irq.jessica.lynch.doctors.ap/
NASIRIYAH, Iraq AP - Iraqi doctors who treated former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch dismissed on Friday claims made in her biography that she was raped by her Iraqi captors. Although Lynch said she has no memory of the sexual assault, medical records cited in I am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story indicate that she was raped and sodomized by her Iraqi captors, according to United States media who said they had advance copies. The book - due to be released Tuesday - covers Lynchs experience between March 23 when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah and April 1 when she was evacuated from a hospital by United States commandos. A family spokesman, Stephen Goodwin, confirmed the book alleges Lynch was raped. Lynch suffered broken bones to her right arm, right leg and thighs and ankle and received a head injury when her Humvee utility vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into another vehicle. On ABCs Good Morning America on Thursday, host Diane Sawyer gave details of the contents of Lynchs book. The book does indeed cite some intelligence reports that she was treated brutally and a medical record which says, in the book, that she was a victim of a sodomozing rape, Sawyer said. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyahs main hospital performed surgery on Lynch to repair a fractured femur and said he found no signs that she was raped or sodomized. Khafazji, speaking at his private clinic in Nasiriyah, said he examined her extensively and would have detected signs of sexual assault. Jamal al-Saeidi, a brigadier general and head of the orthopedic department at the now disbanded Military Hospital, said he remembers seeing Jessicas motionless body on a bed in the crowded lobby of his hospital. He said a police van parked outside appeared to have brought her to the hospital. When she was brought there she was fighting for her life, said Dr.
He said Lynch was fully clothed with her field jacket buttoned up. Her clothes were not torn, buttons had not come off, her pants were zipped up, al-Saeidi said. Al-Saeidi said he found no signs of rape during an examination although he acknowledged he was not looking for signs of sexual assault. In her interview with Sawyer, Lynch said she has no recollection of a rape. Lynch told Sawyer she doesnt remember being slapped or mistreated at the hospital, and she recalled one nurse sang to her. She also told Sawyer that she believes the United States military overdramatized the story of her rescue in Iraq. Responding to questions that the military may have exaggerated the danger of her nighttime rescue by United States commandos, she said, Yeah, I dont think it happened quite like that. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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