Four American soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania have died, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.
The search for the missing soldiers – who were training near the Lithuanian border with Belarus – is ongoing.
“The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident,” the US army said in a statement.
“The M88 Hercules armoured recovery vehicle the four missing U.S. Soldiers were operating during a training exercise, has been located in Lithuania.”
Mr Rutte said during a trip to Warsaw that he had received word of the deaths of the four soldiers while he was delivering a lecture, and his thoughts were with their families and with the United States.
“This is still early news so we do not know the details. This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones,” he said.
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An “intensive” rescue operation is currently under way, Lithuania’s military wrote on X.
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