Rescuers Dig for Missing US Soldiers' Vehicle in Lithuania

Rescuers in Lithuania were digging on Thursday into a peat bog in a military training area to recover the vehicle of four U.S. soldiers missing for two days.

NATO on Wednesday clarified comments that Secretary-General Mark Rutte made earlier in the day, when he suggested that four U.S. soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania had died, even though the U.S. Army said their fate was not yet confirmed.

"The search is ongoing," NATO said in a statement posted on X. "We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown."

The soldiers in the M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle were on an exercise at the Pabrade training ground near the Belarus border where U.S. units have been rotating since 2019.

Their vehicle was located on Wednesday at more than 5 meters down and enough water had now been drained from the swamp to begin digging for it, Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene told reporters on Thursday morning after surveying the site.

Hundreds of Lithuanian and U.S. soldiers with dozens of vehicles were working at the site and surveying nearby woodland in hope of finding the soldiers. "To us, their soldiers are like our soldiers," said army head Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.

U.S. ambassador Kara McDonald thanked Lithuania for the help, calling it a model ally. "As our secretary of defense said, we will not rest until our troops are found," she added at the site, saying recovery of the vehicle was difficult.

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Kestutis Budrys told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington earlier this week that his country was ready to host more U.S. troops.