Four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing during a training exercise in Lithuania have died, according to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“Whilst I was speaking the news came out about four American soldiers who were killed in an incident in Lithuania,” Rutte told reporters in Warsaw on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
“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 added.
The U.S. Army Europe and Africa command’s media division told The Independent the secretary general was speaking about seeing reports of deaths, and that the U.S. military was “unable to confirm the deaths of the missing soldiers at this time.”
U.S. officials announced a search was underway for the service members earlier in the day.
The soldiers were taking part in scheduled tactical training outside the capital, Vilnius, according to the military.
The military said in a statement the soldiers were part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
The Lithuanian military previously announced it was searching for the soldiers, tracking a vehicle that went missing on Tuesday.
The four soldiers and a vehicle were reported missing Tuesday during an exercise in Pabradė, a town near the Belarusian border, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported, according to The Washington Post.
The soldiers were in a military-issue M88 recovery vehicle during the disappearance, a U.S. Army official in Europe told The New York Times.
They were driving through the training area to retrieve another heavy vehicle and may have driven off the road into a swamp, where they may have been trapped inside when truck submerged, the official said.
“Currently, the possible location of the incident has been identified and a search and rescue operation is underway, led by the Lithuanian Armed Forces, with additional capabilities from the Fire Protection and Rescue Department and other institutions,” the Lithuanian Armed Forces said earlier on Wednesday, LRT reports.
The broadcaster photographed military police and other emergency vehicles investigating the disappearance in a wooded area.
The incident took place at a time of heightened tensions in Eastern Europe. Lithuania is a NATO member and ally of nearby Ukraine, while Belarus is aligned with Russia.
Source: independent.co.uk