Four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania during a training operation have died, according to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
U.S. and Lithuanian forces are searching for the soldiers, all of whom were from the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. They were conducting a scheduled tactical training near the Lithuanian city of Pabradė when they went missing.
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Rutte, who was in Warsaw on Wednesday, was the first official to say the missing soldiers are believed to have died. Representatives from the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa have said they are missing but have not confirmed their deaths.
The soldiers were operating an M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle, which was discovered submerged in an undisclosed body of water.
It’s standard military procedure not to name troops who are killed on duty publicly until after their families can be notified.
“I would like to personally thank the Lithuanian Armed Forces and first responders who quickly came to our aid in our search operations,” Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the V Corps commanding general, said. “It’s this kind of teamwork and support that exemplifies the importance of our partnership and our humanity regardless of what flags we wear on our shoulders.”
The Lithuanian Armed Forces said a “notification was received” about the missing soldiers around 4:45 p.m. local time Tuesday and that “a rescue mission began yesterday involving helicopters of the Lithuanian Air Forces and the State Border Guard.”
Pabradė is about 30 miles south of the capital, Vilnius, and 6 miles from Lithuania’s border with Belarus.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has been a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, has been a member of NATO since 2004.