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VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — After a thorough six-day search, a U.S. armored vehicle that went missing in Lithuania has been located and retrieved from a swamp. However, officials reported that there remains no information on the whereabouts of the four American soldiers aboard the vehicle.
Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė confirmed on Facebook that the armored vehicle was successfully pulled from the water at 4:40 a.m. She noted that the Croatian Military Police, along with U.S. investigators, are continuing their inquiries into the incident.
According to the U.S. army, the soldiers were partaking in a training exercise at the expansive General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground located in Pabradė when the report was made that both they and their vehicle were missing on Tuesday morning.
“We need to maintain calm and focus until we receive more information from investigators. It’s crucial to consider the sensitivities involved and the concerns of the families,” Šakalienė stated in her online post.
She emphasized during a press briefing that details concerning the soldiers’ condition would come solely from U.S. military sources.
The soldiers involved are all members of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division and were executing tactical operations when they became unaccounted for.
The search undertaken involved hundreds of Lithuanian and U.S. personnel who participated in exhaustive efforts through dense forests and wetland regions surrounding Pabradė, situated approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Belarus border. The M88 Hercules armored vehicle was found submerged under 4.5 meters (15 feet) of water on Wednesday.
The recovery operation faced significant challenges as rescue teams dealt with “water, thick mud, and unstable ground,” which required specialized machinery to drain the area and stabilize the site for the recovery of the 70-ton vehicle.
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