KUWAIT CITY (AP) – Iraqi troops south of Tikrit handed U.S. Marines a stunning surprise Sunday: seven American POWs released in relatively good condition after 22 days of captivity.

Freedom brought hugs, applause and slaps on the back from smiling Marines before the seven were flown to Kuwait for a medical checkup and debriefing. Back home, their families and friends burst out in jubilation.

Five of those returned Sunday were members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company that made a wrong turn near the southern Iraqi city Nasiriyah and was ambushed March 23 – the same incident in which rescued POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch was captured.

The other released prisoners were crewmen of an Apache helicopter downed that day.

“It’s just a good way to start off the morning, to have been notified that seven of our fellow Americans are going to be home here pretty soon in the arms of their loved ones,” President Bush said in Washington.

Among the former POWs was Shoshana Johnson, 30, of Fort Bliss, Texas, a single mother of a 2-year-old. Johnson, the only woman among them, had been shot in the ankle, and Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas, had been shot in the elbow, according to Marines who flew them to safety.

The others appeared to be unharmed.

Shortly after their capture, the seven had been shown on Iraq’s state-run television, giving a human face to the peril confronting American troops.

Nine others of the 507th convoy were killed.

The seven Americans freed Sunday were picked up wearing bedraggled clothing – blue-and-white pajamas, khakis or shorts.

Besides Johnson and Hernandez, the others from the 507th were Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken, N.J.; Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, Alamogordo, N.M.; and Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, Park City, Kan.

The other POWs were Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, and Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla.

Back home, in Lithia Springs, Ga., Young’s father watched shaky video footage of the soldiers on CNN. “It’s him, and I’m just so happy that I could kiss the world!” said Ronald Young Sr. “It’s him! It’s definitely him.”

There were conflicting reports on how the Americans were recovered.

Capt. David Romley said Marines marching north toward Tikrit were met by Iraqi soldiers north of Samarra. He said the Iraqis approached the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Company and had the seven POWs with them.

Another spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Capt. Neil Murphy, said the Iraqis who brought the Americans had been abandoned by their officers and, “realizing that it was the right thing to do, they brought these guys back.”

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, also said he believed “our guys picked them up on the road.”

But Maj. Chris Charleville, who commanded the operation that transported the POWs from outside Samarra to an airfield south of Baghdad, said he was told that Marines had been searching buildings in Samarra when they stormed a building and found the POWs inside.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Iraqis told U.S. troops they would find the seven missing soldiers at a location about four or five miles south of Tikrit. “They said, ‘You should go get them,’ and they did,” Rumsfeld said.

During the flight to the airbase near Kut, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, Miller came up to where the pilots were sitting.

“He was just grabbing us, telling us that he loved us and hugging the crew chief,” Charleville said.

Once at the airbase, the seven clambered off the helicopters under their own power, and walked or limped to a C-130 transport plane that took them to Kuwait.

Marines at the base patted them on the back. When Marine combat headquarters got news that the POWs had been found, the troops applauded – rare in combat operations, Murphy said.

“You could feel the happiness and excitement in the combat operations center,” he said.

All seven were released after a medical assessment in Kuwait, said Lt. Col. Ruth Lee, chief nurse at the facility where they were examined. “Their condition is good. I saw nothing that looked abnormal,” Lee said.

Lt. Col. Larry Cox, a military spokesman, said the seven would be debriefed in Kuwait, then decisions would be made on a “case-by-case basis” on sending them elsewhere.

Franks underscored his commitment to rescuing coalition captives — but cautioned he didn’t think that all POWs and MIAs could be recovered. Five Americans are still listed as missing in action.

“I don’t think we could predict that at all,” he told Fox TV. “I think it would be a true blessing if we were able to do that, and I don’t think we … can count on it.

“But I can tell you this,” Franks added. “Even though we can’t count on it, we can work at them hard. And we have been, and we will.”