VILNIUS (Reuters) -Three of the four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sunk in a peat bog have been found dead at the site, while the search for the remaining soldier is ongoing, U.S. and Lithuanian officials said on Monday.
Lithuania had said earlier on Monday that rescuers had recovered the armoured vehicle of the missing soldiers in a military training area in the Baltic country.
“It is with deep sadness and sorrow that I received the news of the tragic loss of three U.S. soldiers,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on social media platform X.
“Lithuania mourns together with the American nation,” he said.
U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the search for the fourth soldier would continue.
“I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, and our dedicated allies in Lithuania and Poland for their unwavering commitment in locating our fallen service members,” Driscoll said in a statement.
The soldiers and their vehicle went missing at the Pabrade training ground near the border with Belarus.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, Anna Ringstrom, Louise Rasmussen, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Stine Jacobsen, Terje Solsvik and Mark Porter)
