Four US army soldiers have been killed in Lithuania during training, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, said while visiting Warsaw on Wednesday.
“Whilst I was speaking the news came out about four American soldiers who were killed in an incident in Lithuania,” Rutte told reporters, adding that he did not know any details.
“The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing US soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located in Lithuania,” it said in a statement.
A statement from the US army’s Europe and Africa public affairs office in Wiesbaden, Germany, said the soldiers were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time.
“killed” implies that somebody killed them. Our national news makes no such statement and they do not have any evidence of them being dead yet. Various organisations are performing a very difficult vehicle recovery operation as we speak, but it’s not finished yet.
"All versions are still being checked, and the Americans have informed us that they also continued to search the surrounding area throughout the night, because any scenarios are still considered possible until we see the vehicle, which is several metres deep,” Šakalienė said during the visit to the Pabradė training ground.
“We cannot confirm whether there are soldiers in the vehicle,” she added.
Missing US troops in Pabradė: MoD reports progress in recovering vehicle
