Tears for American seized by Iraqis

A mother told today of her anguish when she turned on her television and saw her GI son was a prisoner of the Iraqis.

Anecita Hudson watched 23-year-old Joe, one of five captured US soldiers being paraded by gloating Iraqis, and said: "I saw my son and I said, 'Oh, my God'. I looked at him, and he looked so scared. I started crying."

Mrs Hudson, who was born in the Philippines said she saw her son on a Filipino TV channel at her New Mexico home. American networks have refused to show film of the captives or the bodies of other US servicemen.

The broadcast, provided by Iraqi State TV, showed a brief clip of Joe, who has a five-yearold son, in which he gave his name but seemed uninjured.

"I was so shocked and very confused, said Mrs Hudson, who is waiting for a kidney transplant. "He looks okay, but I can see from his face that he is confused and very scared. That's why I started crying. He looked so scared."

She said she had last seen her son, an army specialist with a maintenance unit, three weeks ago before he left for Kuwait.

Her daughter-in-law had been contacted by the army, she said. "According to her they briefed her that Joe is going to be okay and that they are trying to get him out of there.''

Mrs Hudson, whose husband was killed in a motorbike crash in 1991, added: "I would just like the President of the United States to save my son, and I want him to come home. I'm just praying that the other people will get him out of there.''

US military officials have not yet officially released the names of the captured Americans, who include one woman. Two of the other prisoners interviewed said they were with the 507th Maintenance, part of the 111th Air Defence Artillery Brigade, which is stationed at Fort Bliss.

They were captured in an ambush near Nassiriya, a major crossing point over the Euphrates, to the north-west of Basra. Their treatment and reports of photographs of the bullet riddled bodies of soldiers, has sparked outrage in America, making front page headlines.

Television networks and newspapers have not shown the prisoners out of consideration to their families and because the Iraqi broadcasts are said to be in breach of the Geneva convention. The deaths of other marines in combat yesterday and the hand grenade attack by a rogue US soldier in Kuwait has brought home the cost of war to many Americans.

Senator Pete Domenici, whose represents the Hudson family in New Mexico, said Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, had asked him to "assure the family, including Mrs Hudson, that we are doing everything possible to assure his safety and speedy return.

"He complimented the young military people, including Joseph, as being well-trained, extremely patriotic and great volunteers."

Mrs Hudson said her son's wife, Natalie, was briefed at Fort Bliss on Sunday and was told not to say anything about her husband's plight. "I'm just praying that the other people (in the military) will get him out of there," she added.