VILNIUS (March 28): Rescuers in Lithuania were digging on Thursday into a peat bog in a military training area to recover the vehicle of four US soldiers missing for two days.

The soldiers in the M88 Hercules armoured recovery vehicle were on an exercise at the Pabrade training ground near the Belarus border where US units have been rotating since 2019.

Their vehicle was located on Wednesday at more than five metres down and enough water had now been drained from the swamp to begin digging for it, Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene told reporters on Thursday morning after surveying the site.

Hundreds of Lithuanian and US soldiers with dozens of vehicles were working at the site and surveying nearby woodland in hope of finding the soldiers. "To us, their soldiers are like our soldiers," said army head Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.

Poland is sending dozens of troops and scuba divers and equipment to Lithuania to help with the search, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz posted on X on Thursday.

US ambassador Kara McDonald thanked Lithuania for the help, calling it a model ally. "As our secretary of defence said, we will not rest until our troops are found," she added at the site, saying recovery of the vehicle was difficult.

Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Kestutis Budrys told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington this week that his country was ready to host more US troops.

US President Donald Trump, asked about the missing soldiers, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that he had not been briefed on the incident.

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