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Lynch, then a 19-year-old supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company (based in Fort Bliss, Texas), was injured and captured by Iraqi forces after her group was ambushed on March 23, 2003 near Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates River northwest of BasraBasra (also known as Basrah or Basara historically sometimes called Busra Busrah and early on Bassorah Arabic: , Al-Basrah is the second largest city of Iraq with an estimated population of about 1,377,000 in 2003. It is the country's main port. The city. She was initially listed as missing in action (MIA). Eleven other soldiers in the company were killed in the ambush.
Accounts of the events in between Lynch's capture and her rescue were incomplete and contradictory, and Lynch herself has no clear recollection of this period. Dr. Greg Argyros, assistant chief of the Department of Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Lynch was treated, stated that, "Anytime anybody goes through a traumatic event of any kind, there is the risk that they may have a period that they don't remember what happened."
Some time after Lynch's rescue, several sources alleged the story of Lynch's rescue was distorted and exaggerated by the United States government in an effort to undercut public resistance to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraqi doctors at the hospital in question claimed Lynch was well cared for by hospital personnel and virtually unguarded at the time that she was rescued by American forces; rather, Lynch's "rescue" was a publicity stuntA publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the Public's attention to the promoters, the perpetrators or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organised or set up by amateurs. Brent Butt on a gas station sign Public relations (P that was staged, and the subsequent news reports were carefully controlled propagandaNorth Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the Capitol building. This article is about the type of communication. For other meanings, see Propaganda (disambiguation). Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation, aimed at serving an age. Though Pentagon statements claimed that Lynch emptied her gun fighting off her attackers, later reports and Lynch herself indicated that this was not the case; in fact her gun jammed on the first round and she did not offer any resistance to her capture. The story is now believed to have stemmed from the mistranslation of an intercepted Iraqi message which referred to one of her male fellow soldiers.
Amended reports by the Washington Post, which initially reported dramatic stories of Lynch's ordeal, indicated that U.S. officials made no attempt to downplay exaggerated or incorrect reports in the media. The dramatic rescue, with heavy force ready for an unknown situation, was videotaped at the request of military public affairs, who knew this would be a popular story. In other reports, British military officials were very critical of the way that the videotape was released to the press and the spin that U.S. officials decided to put on the Lynch story. Iraqi doctors caring for Lynch told reporters that they gave Lynch the best care possible while she was kept at the hospital, and that they often bought juice that she asked for using their own money. They also said that they were not only frightened by the dramatic way US forces held them at gunpoint during the rescue, but that the forces also slashed the special sand bed that Lynch was given, the only such bed in the hospital (designed to prevent bed sores for patients suffering from serious burns) before sweeping out again. During the "raid," twelve doors were also kicked in and damaged and a sterilized operating theatre was contaminated. No reports that the Iraqi hospital would be compensated for the damage were ever published. Doctors also noted that Iraqi soldiers had left the hospital the morning before the rescue.