Iraqi doctors: No signs Lynch was raped

NASIRIYAH, Iraq -- Iraqi doctors who treated former POW Jessica Lynch dismissed yesterday allegations 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 US media who said they had advance copies.

The book, due to be released Tuesday, covers Lynch's experiences between March 23, when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah, and April 1, when she was evacuated from a hospital by US commandos. It was unclear whether the book cites American or Iraqi records.

A family spokesman, Stephen Goodwin, confirmed that the book alleges Lynch was raped.

Lynch suffered broken bones in her right arm, right leg, thighs, and ankle, and she received a head injury when her Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into another vehicle. Eleven soldiers were killed in the attack.

Dr. Mahdi Khafazji, an orthopedic surgeon at Nasiriyah's main hospital, performed surgery on Lynch to repair a fractured femur and said he found no signs that she had been raped or sodomized.

Khafazji, speaking at his private clinic in Nasiriyah, said he examined her extensively and would have detected signs of sexual assault. He said the examination turned up no trace of semen.

The surgeon said Lynch was taken first to the Military Hospital, a few hundred yards from the site of the ambush, around 8 a.m. A few hours later, she was brought to his hospital.

"She was injured at about 7 in the morning," he said. "What kind of animal would do it to a person suffering from multiple injuries?"

Dr. Jamal al-Saeidi, a brigadier general and head of the orthopedic department at the now disbanded Military Hospital, remembers seeing Lynch's motionless body on a bed in the crowded lobby of his hospital.

"When she was brought there she was fighting for her life," said Saeidi at his private clinic. "She was in shock because of the severity of her injury."

He said Lynch was fully clothed, with her jacket buttoned. "Her clothes were not torn, buttons had not come off, her pants were zipped up," Saeidi said.

Saeidi said he found no signs of rape during an examination, although he acknowledged he was not looking for indications of sexual assault.