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From Itv.com

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Hollywood eyes Jessica Lynch

Sunday 6 April 2003, by Webmaster

The plaster has barely set on rescued POW Jessica Lynch’s broken limbs - and Hollywood is already rumoured to be working on a film.

Private Lynch was taken hostage for ten days after the US Army’s 507th Maintenance Co was ambushed by Iraqi forces on March 23.

In a daring raid, US commandos rescued her from the hospital in al-Nasiriyah where she was being held.

Tinseltown executives now think it could make for a great movie and studio bosses are now battling for the rights to the story.

It is thought that Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar is being touted for the lead role.

US commandos rescued Private Lynch from a hospital in al-Nasiriyah after an Iraqi lawyer told US Marines where the 19-year-old woman was.

Reports have said that the man, identified only as 32-year-old Mohammed, saw a black-clad Iraqi security agent slap Lynch as she lay bandaged in bed, covered with a white blanket.

He said the Iraqis were talking about amputating her leg, which had been injured during or after the attack on her maintenance company during which she was taken prisoner.

"Don’t worry, don’t worry," Mohammed later told Lynch as he prepared to go for help, reports have said.

Mohammed said he could not bear to see the young soldier beaten in the hospital.

"My heart is cut," he said. "I decided to go to the Americans and tell them about this story," he is reported to have said.

Five days later, after he located the US Marines and told them what he knew, Black Hawk helicopters swooped in under cover of darkness and a team of heavily armed commandos stormed the building.

With hand-scrawled maps from Mohammed and his wife, the commandos quickly found the injured soldier and whisked her to safety.

US forces also recovered 11 corpses and US defence officials have said that preliminary reports indicate nine were US remains, while the two others were probably Iraqi.

Since her rescue, Private Lynch has been flown to US Ramstein airbase in Germany and has undergone back surgery.

Her parents in West Virginia said she has two broken legs and a broken right forearm.