Iraqi honoured for his role in Jessica rescue

The Iraqi lawyer who helped US troops rescue American prisoner of war Jessica Lynch was honoured by an American lawyers’ group.

The Delaware Bar Association said the award granted to Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, 32, reflected the best quality of lawyers – helping defenceless people being treated unfairly.

Al-Rehaief did not comment after receiving the award in Wilmington yesterday.

The bar association asked the media to avoid taking photographs of al-Rehaief, his wife and five-year-old daughter for security reasons.

Al-Rehaief and his family were granted asylum in the United States last month and plan to settle in the Washington DC area.

He had been offered a job with the Livingston Group, a Washington lobbying firm, said Claire de Matteis, senior counsel to Delaware’s Sen. Joseph Biden, and a member of the bar association’s executive committee.

Pfc, Lynch, a 20-year-old Army supply clerk, was captured on March 23 after her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

She was rescued from a hospital in the city on April 1 after al-Rehaief mapped out her location for US Marines.

De Matteis presented the award to al-Rehaief after Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, was detained in Washington by Senate business.