Warsaw, Mar 27 (AP) NATO on Wednesday clarified comments that its Secretary-General Mark Rutte made earlier in the day, when he suggested that four US soldiers who went missing while training in Lithuania had died, even though the US Army said their fate was not yet confirmed.

"The search is ongoing," NATO said in a statement posted on X.

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"We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports and was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown," it said.

The US Army said the Hercules armoured vehicle the four US soldiers were in during a training exercise had been found submerged in a body of water.

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It said recovery efforts were underway by US Army and Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.

The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting tactical training when they went missing.

During a trip to Warsaw, Rutte told reporters that he had received word of the deaths of the four soldiers while he was delivering a lecture, and that his thoughts were with their families and with the United States.

"This is still early news so we do not know the details. This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones," Rutte said in Warsaw.

Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported that the four US soldiers and their vehicle were reported missing on Tuesday afternoon during an exercise at the General Silvestras Zukauskas training ground in Pabrade, a town located less than 10 km 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. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces. (AP)

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