COPENHAGEN/WASHINGTON - A fourth U.S. Army soldier, who together with three others went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sank in a peat bog, has been found dead, U.S. and Lithuanian officials said on Tuesday.
The three other soldiers were found dead on Monday after rescuers recovered the armored vehicle of the four missing soldiers in a military training area near the border with Belarus.
“Deeply saddened to announce that the body of the fourth U.S. soldier, who was training in Lithuania, has been found,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote on the social media platform X, offering condolences.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also confirmed the fourth death, telling reporters at a White House press briefing that U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration were praying for all of the victims and their families.
Nauseda also thanked those who helped “find the one remaining soldier still missing under such challenging conditions.”
Rescuers had spent days digging to recover the M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the soldiers were using as part of an exercise at the Pabrade training ground, where U.S. units have been rotating since 2019.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Steve Holland and Gram Slattery in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones, Susan Heavey and Mark Porter)
