Marines find seven missing US troops

Marines found seven missing US troops today on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit.

An Iraqi tipped off the US Marines who were near Samarra and were closing in on Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, that they would shortly “come in contact with a number of Americans,” , General Tommy Franks told Fox News

Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking on NBC’s ”Meet the Press,” said two of the Americans have gunshot wounds.

The families of the seven are being notified, Rumsfeld said.

Ronald Young Sr. identified one of the Americans from a video shown by CNN as his son, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D Young Jr., who was listed as a POW after his Apache helicopter was forced down on March 23.

“It’s him, and I’m just so happy that I could kiss the world”, his father said.

“It’s him. It’s definitely him.”

Franks said that he believed the Marines “picked them up on the road.”

“I know they’re in good shape and I know they’re in our hands and under our control now,” he told CNN.

Franks said he was unsure whether the group was among five listed as missing or seven listed as POWs.

Bob Franken of CNN, who was with the Marine 24th Expeditionary Unit, said the Americans were brought to an airfield about 50 miles south of Baghdad in ambulances and all ran or walked to a C-130 transport plane to take them to Kuwait.

Two walked with a limp and one of those was a woman, Franken said.

One of the seven raised his hand in victory, and the woman was carrying her own equipment, he said.

Pentagon officials have committed to tracking down 12 soldiers still missing or captured since the spectacular rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch on April 1, but until Franks’ revelation, there appeared to be no leads.

Franks said he was reluctant to discuss the matter further until he had better information – but he made sure to underscore once again his commitment to rescuing coalition captives.

“For sure we’re going to take care of our own,” he told CNN. “This is very good news.”

The sister-in-law of Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, a 23-year-old POW who was among the 507th Maintenance Company soldiers shown on Iraqi TV, was optimistic when she heard some of the troops had been freed.

“I hope it’s Joe,” Bethany Herrera said.

Elsie Morgan, a spokeswoman for relatives of Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, of El Paso, Texas, said the family was “waiting for confirmation” from the military.

Officials had been sounding an upbeat note in recent days, saying more people were willing to talk and share secrets about potential POW sightings now that Saddam Hussein’s henchmen are gone.

“What we’re finding now is that the regime has been moved away, people will speak about what it is they know,” US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks at US Central Command in Doha, Qatar said on Saturday during a briefing.

“And so, we suspect that much of the information that will assist us either in finding prisoners of war from this conflict or previous conflicts ... will come by way of the elimination of the regime.”

The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.