CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) - U.S. Marines have found seven missing U.S. troops on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit, and they appear to be healthy, Gen. Tommy Franks said Sunday.
An Iraqi tipped off the 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,'' Franks told Fox News
``I believe our guys picked them up on the road,'' he said.
``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.
Franks originally said six were found. Central Command later said seven Americans were safe.
Bob Franken of CNN, who was with the Marine 24th Expeditionary Unit that found the Americans, said they 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. Marines nearby applauded as they went past, 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.''
Families of U.S. POWs reacted to the news Sunday with optimism.
``Either way, it's good news,'' said Ron Young Sr., whose son, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., was listed as a POW after his helicopter was forced down March 23. ``It gives me hope, it really does,'' he said.
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 Sunday when she heard some of the troops had been freed.
``I hope it's Joe,'' Bethany Hudson said.
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,'' U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar said 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.''
Lynch, who was rescued April 1 from a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah after an Iraqi civilian tipped soldiers off, became the first POW to return home Saturday.
The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.
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Prayers being said for all the others to be found safe, very soon.
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