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By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) -A search for four U.S. soldiers continued in Lithuania after their vehicle was found submerged in a training area, the U.S. Army said on Wednesday.
"The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing U.S. Soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located in Lithuania," it said in a statement.
The military search and rescue operation has been ongoing since Tuesday, after the soldiers and their vehicle went missing at Pabrade training ground, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Belarus.
Battalions of U.S. soldiers have been based in the military camp since 2019, in rotations. Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Kestutis Budrys told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday his country is ready to host more U.S. troops.
On a visit to Warsaw earlier on Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the soldiers had died but that he did not have details. A NATO spokesperson later said Rutte was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is unknown.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene, who visited the training site late on Wednesday, said no bodies had been found.
"That's why it would be wrong to say that the soldiers are dead," she told reporters.
The search was expected to continue through the night, the U.S. and Lithuanian armies said. Lithuanian Chief of Defence Raimundas Vaiksnoras said the rescuers are looking into how fast the swampy location could be drained.
"You all know how important is the presence of U.S. troops in Lithuania. Their soldiers are like our soldiers to us. So we spare no effort to find them," Vaiksnoras said.
Lithuania has launched an investigation into the soldiers' disappearance.
The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident, the U.S. Army said earlier.
The U.S. Army said it was keeping families of the soldiers informed about the search efforts.
"The search & rescue mission in Pabrade for missing US soldiers is ongoing. Until they are found — staying hopeful, standing with their families, brothers in arms, and all those out there searching," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda posted on social media.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, Essi Lehto, Karol Badohal, Janis Laizans and Andrius Sytas; editing by Stine Jacobse, Terje Solsvik, Mark Heinrich and Rod Nickel)
