Former Iraq PoW Lynch 'to marry'

The exact details of Lynch's reported wedding are being kept secret

US soldier Jessica Lynch, who was rescued by US special forces after being captured in Iraq, is to marry.

Private Lynch, 20, will marry Army Sergeant Ruben Contreras next June, his mother told a US newspaper.

The couple reportedly met two years ago in a fast-food restaurant in Texas, where both of them were stationed.

Private Lynch was captured along with six other US soldiers when Iraqi troops attacked her convoy near the city of Nasiriya in March.

Wedding dress

The exact date and location of the wedding are being kept a secret.

Sgt Contreras' mother, Lisa Latorre, told a newspaper in her hometown of Widefield, Colorado, that she did not want the event to become a media circus.

"I want this to be a real wedding for them, not just a bunch of media storming in," Ms Latorre told the Colorado Springs Gazette.

"I'm looking forward to them finally being able to be together and happy.

"They deserve that chance. They've been through so much."

However Ms Latorre did let one detail slip; she said Private Lynch was already looking for a wedding dress.

Book deal

Jessica Lynch's dramatic rescue in Iraq - after a local lawyer reportedly tipped off US forces as to her whereabouts - became one of the most celebrated and controversial events of the war.

Praised as a heroine by many, others denounced her rescue as a staged event used by Pentagon officials as a propaganda exercise.

Private Lynch, who is still recuperating from wounds sustained during her ordeal and who reportedly has no memory of the incident, recently signed a $1m book deal to publish an account of her capture.

The book, entitled I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, is out this month and Private Lynch has scheduled a series of interviews with major US networks for its promotion.