Mohammed, 32, whose last name was withheld at the Marines' request, had happened upon the heavily guarded room where Lynch lay wounded after the Iraqis ambushed her company on March 23.

Peering through the window of her room, Mohammed saw an imposing black-clad Iraqi security agent slap 19-year-old Lynch with his open palm, then again with the back of his hand.

Later telling reporters his heart was "cut" by what he had seen, Mohammed found a way to enter the room to speak to Lynch. "Don't worry, don't worry," he told her, before going to fetch help, the daily reported.

The Marines have said, had it not been for him, they might never have been able to rescue Lynch.

Mohammed, his wife Imam, a nurse at the hospital, and his six-year-old daughter, are now staying at a refugee camp at Umm Qasr, after arriving at the Marine base with just the clothes they wore.

When he first saw Lynch, he had heard the Iraqis talk of amputating her injured leg, he said. Mohammed urged his doctor friend to stop the amputation. Then he went to tell the Americans.

Walking 10 kilometers (six miles) out of the city to find the Marines, Mohammed approached their base with his hands up.

Nervous of potential suicide attackers, the Marines took him seriously when he said: "I have important information about woman soldier in hospital."

Arranging for his wife to go and stay with family, Mohammed agreed to US requests to go back to the hospital and spy on the Fedayeen, counting 41 of them, four armed with Kalashnikov rifles stationed outside Lynch's room.

He learned what he could about the operations center they had set up at the hospital, and traced the routes through the building US commandos might use.

Back at the Marine base, he drew five maps of the hospital and his wife drew one, according to the Post.

Using the information the two provided, a joint operation of special forces rescued the supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company late Tuesday in a pre-dawn raid on the Iraqi-held hospital where she had been held for more than a week.

Iraqi forces ambushed Lynch's company after it took a wrong turn last month near the southern city of Nasiriyah.

While Mohammed has said he wants to help the coalition some more, perhaps elsewhere in Iraq, and would like to visit the United States, "In the future when Saddam Hussein is down I will go back to Nasiriyah."

WAR.WIRE