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Former POW's Return Home
« on: Apr 20th, 2003, 9:57am » |
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Former POWs return to bases
Sunday, April 20, 2003 Posted: 8:33 AM EDT (1233 GMT)
FORT BLISS, Texas (CNN) -- A C-17 cargo plane carrying seven U.S. soldiers once held as prisoners of war in Iraq arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas, on Saturday night to a cheering crowd.
It marked the soldiers' first time back in the United States since they were deployed.
Two former POWs -- Spec. Joseph Hudson and Pfc. Patrick Miller -- waved an American flag through an open hatch atop the plane while it was taxied on the runway. A large crowd of well-wishers cheered on the returning soldiers.
The C-17 left Germany on Saturday morning for the 13-hour trip. The soldiers had been recuperating at a U.S. military medical facility in Landstuhl.
Five of the soldiers are members of the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss. They took a wrong turn and were ambushed March 23 outside Nasiriya, Iraq.
The five are Spc. Shoshana Johnson of El Paso, Texas; Spc. Edgar Hernandez of Mission, Texas; Hudson of Alamogordo, New Mexico; Miller of Walter, Kansas; and Sgt. James Riley of Pennsauken, New Jersey.
Two of the returning soldiers then continued on to Fort Hood, Texas, where they are based, about 600 miles to the east. Hundreds of members of the 4th Aviation Brigade, 1st Cavalry, stood in formation to meet Chief Warrant Officers Ronald Young and David Williams.
The two pilots arrived just before 11:45 p.m. (12:45 a.m. EDT Sunday) to the cheers of the 1st Cavalry Division.
U.S. troops rescued the seven soldiers April 13 after nearly three weeks of captivity.
President Bush is scheduled to travel Sunday to Fort Hood for an Easter service with the troops.
Iraqi police arrest official
In Baghdad, Iraq's newly re-established police force arrested a top official of Saddam Hussein's regime and turned him over to U.S. troops, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al Azzawi, Iraq's former deputy prime minister and finance minister, was arrested Friday at a relative's home on a tip from an Iraqi and was turned over to U.S. Marines in Baghdad, U.S. military officials said.
Azzawi is the eight of diamonds in the deck of playing cards distributed to U.S. troops to help identify wanted regime officials. U.S. military officials said he might be able to lead coalition authorities to stashes of money hidden by Saddam's regime. He is No. 45 on the 55 most-wanted list, which is arranged in descending order of importance. Five of the 55 are in custody.
Other developments
Four U.S. soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division were injured Saturday in Baghdad when a child tried to give them a piece of ordnance that accidentally detonated, according to Central Command. The child also was hurt.
A convoy carrying food for the surviving animals at the Baghdad Zoo arrived in the Iraqi capital, Central Command said. U.S. troops have been caring for the animals, who were abandoned when Baghdad fell to coalition forces. The food, donated by the Kuwait government and transported by the coalition, includes a two-week supply of fruits, vegetables and meat and a one-month supply of dry feed.
At least 20 antiquities suspected of being looted from Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad were seized by Jordanian officials at the Iraqi border, according to a source in Jordan's Information Ministry.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said Saturday that "huge needs" remain throughout Iraq, but the situation is "not really a catastrophe." Spokesman Morten Rostrup said, "I think the major problem has been in fact security and also lack of staff because people have not really come back to the hospitals to work."
CNN Correspondents Jim Clancy, Michael Holmes, Jamie McIntyre, Tom Mintier, Nic Robertson and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
EDITOR'S NOTE: CNN's policy is to not report information that puts operational security at risk.
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