3 US soldiers found dead in Lithuania after their vehicle is sunk in a swamp

Three soldiers of the American army were found dead in Lithuania on Monday, almost a week after the armored vehicle they had used during a training mission was stuck in a deep and muddy swamp, the army said.

The research and recovery operations for a fourth soldier who was also in the vehicle continued on Monday, said the army.

The 70 -ton vehicle was pulled out of the swamp on Monday morning early, said the army. For days, hundreds of people, including technical and divers experts from the United States Navy, had worked to resolve the complex engineering challenge of the recovery of the vehicle from the swamp. The operation required excavators, pumps and other building equipment.

The soldiers Missing were reported on Tuesday After they have not returned from a training mission, according to the US military. Their vehicle, an Hercules M88, was found immersed in the swamp on Wednesday.

The missing soldiers, of the first brigade, third division of infantry, were training near Pabrade, a city in the eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus, A narrow ally of Russia And a Stalwart supporter of his war in Ukraine.

Mag. Gen. Christopher Norrie, commander of the third infantry division, said in a declaration Monday that “the research is not over until everyone is at home”.

“Words cannot express our gratitude to those who are still working all day during these large research and recovery efforts and your unwavering commitment not to rest until everyone is found,” said General Norrie.

The soldiers had been sent to the EERCO M88, essentially a gigantic armored trailer truck, to extract another vehicle of the army, said the military. They may have guided by the road and in the swamp, and the soldiers seemed to have been trapped inside, according to an army official in Europe.

The divers of the US Navy swam in the muddy swamp, with zero visibility, to attack two cables to the vehicle sunk on Sunday evening, said the army. It took about two hours of Winch to pull it out of the swamp.

Sunday, rescue efforts were hindered by a landslide, the Sakaliene of the pigeons, the Lithuanian defense minister, he said on social media. Described the effort as a “Extending struggle with the power of the deep swamp.”

The search for the fourth soldier will be demanding, according to a high American army official in Europe.

The American and Lithuanian research crews have been able to use sophisticated Sonar technology to find the large armored vehicle, but this technology is less useful to locate a human body in a peat. The immersion team created a grid system to methodically look for the fourth soldier, said the official.

The initial research of the soldiers, through thick forests and swampy land, concerned Lithuanian military helicopters and immersion teams and hundreds of American and Lithuanian soldiers and law enforcement agents, said the American army.

Both Belarus and Russia have often criticized Lithuania, a NATO member who was part of the Soviet Union, for hosting American and allied troops.

Lithuania and other former Soviet states in Eastern Europe are worrying that President Trump weakens NATO. Their participation in recovery efforts to find the missing American soldiers showed what President Gitanas Nausea of ​​Lithuania He said it was the value of the allies who acted together. Poland, the neighbor of Lithuania and another member of NATO, has also sent military engineers to help.

Eric Schmitt Contributed relationships. Kitty Bennett Research contribution.