WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Army officials say some M-16 rifles malfunctioned when Pfc. Jessica Lynch's lost maintenance company tried to defend itself from a March Iraqi ambush.
The Washington Post on Thursday quoted an Army report as saying some of the unit's weapons jammed when the unit was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23.
"These malfunctions," the report says, "may have resulted from inadequate individual maintenance in a desert environment" where sand, heat and improper maintenance combined to render the weapons inoperable.
The report, scheduled to be released this week, adds new details to the circumstances revealed last month by The Washington Post, which described how the 18-vehicle convoy got lost and subsequently was attacked.
Eleven of the company's soldiers were killed in combat or died from injuries; six were captured and later freed, including Lynch. The remaining 16 sped to safety.
