Four US soldiers killed in Lithuania, Nato secretary general says | US military

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 US army later said that a vehicle used by the soldiers had been found submerged in water, adding that the search for the missing troops continued.

“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.

Lithuania’s military earlier on Wednesday said they were searching for four US soldiers and a tracked vehicle that had gone missing on Tuesday afternoon.

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.

“A possible scene has now been identified, and a search and rescue operation is under way,” the Lithuanian military said in a statement.

It said further information would be provided as new information becomes available.

The Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported that four US soldiers and a vehicle were reported missing on Tuesday afternoon during an exercise at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, a town located less than 10km (6 miles) from the border with Belarus.

The Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are all Nato members and have often had chilly ties with Russia, a key ally of Belarus, since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.

Relations soured further over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its fight against the forces of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.