
Fate of four missing U.S. soldiers still unknown as armored vehicle pulled from swamp in Lithuania
A U.S. armored vehicle that went missing in Lithuania has been retrieved from a swamp after a six-day search but there is still no information about the fate of the four American soldiers who were on board, Lithuanian officials said Monday.
'The armored vehicle was pulled ashore at 4:40 a.m., the towing operation is complete, Lithuanian Military Police and US investigators continue their work,' Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said Monday morning in a post on Facebook.
The soldiers were on a training exercise at the massive General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in the town of Pabradė when they and their vehicle were reported missing in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the U.S. army said.
'Until the investigators have more details, we need to stay calm and focused, and keep in mind the sensitivity of the situation and the concerns of the soldiers' families,' Šakalienė posted on Facebook.
She made clear to reporters that the first information about fate of the soldiers will be delivered by the U.S. army.
The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting tactical training when they went missing.
Hundreds of Lithuanian and U.S. soldiers and rescuers took part in the search through the thick forests and swampy terrain around Pabradė, which lies just 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of the border with Belarus. The M88 Hercules armored vehicle was discovered on Wedneday submerged in 4.5 meters (15 feet) of water.
A large-scale recovery operation got underway but 'water, thick mud and soft ground around the site have complicated recovery efforts and have required specialized equipment to drain water from the side and stabilize the ground' in order to pull the 70-ton vehicle ashore, the army said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Metro
3 hours ago
- Metro
R Kelly's lawyers accuse prison officials of ‘soliciting inmate to kill him'
R Kelly's lawyers are fighting to get him released from jail after claiming his life is in danger. The American singer and producer, real name Robert Sylvester Kelly, was once credited as 'the King of R&B', releasing 18 albums and having over 75 million albums and singles, as well as working on albums by Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber and Mary J. Blige. He won Grammy, Billboard and American Music Awards, but his career abruptly ended in 2019 following his arrest and subsequent sentencing for racketeering and sex trafficking charges involving the sexual abuse of minors. Kelly, 58, is currently serving a 31-year combined sentence at a prison in North Carolina. However, his legal team have now filed an emergency motion calling from his immediate release from federal custody to home detention. In a filing made on Tuesday, reviewed by Variety, his attorney Beau B. Brindley claims that the team had 'explicit evidence that officials solicited an inmate to murder him while in custody'. His counsel provided a sworn declaration from Mikeal Glenn Stine, a terminally ill inmate, who said that officials 'offered him freedom in his final days in exchange for Kelly's murder'. Stine, a member of the neo-Nazi prison gang Aryan Brotherhood, claimed that he was told Kelly and his attorneys were planning to expose damaging information, as with the filing alleging that officials violated attorney-client privilege by intercepting personal correspondence. He also stated that officials told him he would be charged with Kelly's murder, but that evidence would be mishandled and there would be no conviction. After arriving at Kelly's unit in March, Stine said he was prepared to kill the rapper but changed his mind and ended up telling the rapper that 'Bureau of Prisons officials directed him to carry out his murder'. Kelly's lawyers have claimed that last month they were told a second member of the Aryan Brotherhood who was told by officials to kill both Kelly and Stine. They have said Kelly is in danger remaining in custody with other members of the Brotherhood. 'The threat to Mr. Kelly's life continues each day that no action is taken,' they wrote in the filing. 'More A.B. members are accumulating at his facility. More than one has already been approached about carrying out his murder. 'One of them will surely do what Mr. Stine has not, thereby burying the truth about what happened in this case along with Robert Kelly.' More Trending In 2023 Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes in Chicago while already serving a 30-year prison sentence over sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York. The judge ruled he could serve 19 years at the same time, meaning the child sex crimes only added one year to his existing sentence. His convictions included three counts of coercing minors into sexual activity and three of producing sex tapes involving a minor. Metro has contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office for comment. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Taylor Swift fans convinced she's secretly married Travis Kelce MORE: It's been 20 years since Brad Pitt 'left' Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie – have we learned anything? MORE: Beyoncé giving away free concert tickets to London shows after 'poor sales'


Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Every piece of evidence linking Christian Brueckner to Madeleine McCann
Police are determined to find conclusive evidence to link 48-year-old German paedophile Christian Brueckner to the Madeleine McCann case before he is set free from prison Convicted rapist and paedophile Christian Brueckner is at the centre of a desperate race against time to find new evidence in the Madeleine McCann case. The 48-year-old was formally named by German police in 2020 as the prime suspect in the three-year-old's disappearance from a Praia da Luz holiday complex back in May 2007. Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year sentence in his home country for rape, is set to be released from prison in September. It's feared he will disappear as soon as he is given his freedom - meaning detectives only have a few months to uncover more evidence, and definitively link him to the case. After last week's search failed to turn up any definitive answers, here's what we know about Brueckner - and why police believe he could be their man. His time in Portugal Brueckner was only a teenager himself when he was handed his first conviction for child sexual abuse in Germany in 1994. He fled to Portugal the next year in a bid to escape his youth custody sentence, but was extradited to to Germany in 1999 to serve his sentence. Upon release from prison, Brueckner went back to Portugal, where he lived a nomadic lifestyle in a VW camper van. He stole from hotels and holiday flats to support himself financially. In 2005, he raped a 72-year-old American woman, an offence for which he was jailed 14 years later. Brueckner spent time in the Praia de Luz area of Portugal between 2000 and 2017. His home was just one mile away from the Ocean Club, where the McCann family were staying when Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007. Years later, investigators reportedly found his mobile phone had received a call close to the holiday flat complex around one hour before the three-year-old was reported missing. His time in Germany - and 'confession' Brueckner abruptly left his car in someone else's name the day after Madeleine disappeared, and exited Portugal soon after. He returned to Germany and settled in the city of Braunschweig, near Hanover. But in 2017, German police received a tip-off alleging that Brueckner had drunkenly claimed he knew what happened to Madeleine. He said to have told a friend: "She didn't scream." Detectives' initial enquiries uncovered a long criminal history, and in June 2017 he was arrested again and convicted for 'sexual abuse of a child in the act of creating and possessing child pornographic material' in a separate case. Further convictions for drug dealing and trafficking followed over the next few years, and he was handed a seven-year-sentence for rape in 2019 over the 2007 rape of the US pensioner in Portugal. In June 2020, he was officially identified by German prosecutors as a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. Officials said the three-year-old was "assumed dead" and that Brueckner was responsible for her disappearance, though he has denied any involvement. Unearthed hard drive and more 'confessions' While investigators have been tight-lipped about what information they have linking him to Madeleine, some details have made their way into the public domain. According to a documentary by The Sun, suspicious items found in a German warehouse bought by Brueckner a year after Madeleine's disappearance included guns, 75 girl's swimming costumes, and a car with chemicals hidden in the boot. Remains of a dead dog were uncovered along with a hard-drive, as well as a number of child kidnap stories believed to have been penned by the paedophile. A former inmate in the same prison as Brueckner has also alleged that he once told him about a number of offences he had committed, including reportedly snatching a girl from a flat in Portugal. His court appearances on other offences Last year, Brueckner was acquitted of carrying out five other sexual offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 after a judge in Braunschweig said there was not enough evidence to convict him. But German investigators - determined to keep the dangerous Brueckner behind bars - have continued to build a case against him regarding Madeleine McCann, and last year one source said they had gained access to a Hotmail account 'related to the killing' of the young girl. In May this year, he returned to court on charges of insulting a public official. Despite prosecutors urging for an extended sentence, he was only given probation with a minimum of one additional month in prison. Before one of his court appearances, the Mirror asked him if he knew what had happened to Madeleine McCann. He responded with a smirk. 'Clothes and bones' found in new search Last Thursday, German and Portuguese investigators finished three days of searching a 120-acre stretch of land, thirty miles from Praia da Luz, in an attempt to find new evidence against Brueckner. During the search - the first to take place since 2023 - crews spent three days scouring scrubland and abandoned structures, including an abandoned farmhouse. While there, they are reported by German media to have found tiny fragments of clothes and bones, which have been sent off for testing. The Met Police, who took over the UK missing persons investigation for Madeleine in 2011, said they were "aware" of the new operation but did not have any officers involved.


Edinburgh Live
9 hours ago
- Edinburgh Live
Madeleine McCann police find 'clothing and bones' in latest search update
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Investigators probing Madeleine McCann's vanishing have dispatched minuscule fragments found during last week's dig to Germany for analysis. The search near where the British toddler vanished, a spot frequented by convicted German sex offender Christian Brueckner, 38, seemed fruitless last Thursday as detectives came up empty-handed in finding solid clues linked to the case. However, it has emerged that small pieces of clothing and bone were unearthed, potentially linking Brueckner, the prime suspect for German authorities, to the crime. A source disclosed to the Berlin Morning Post: "Several objects have apparently been discovered, which are now being examined in more detail by the police in the laboratory. As Portuguese media report, clothing debris and bones were found, among other things. "The investigators have not officially commented on whether the finds could have anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance but that is clearly their hope." The specimens are currently undergoing tests in Germany, with law enforcement optimistic they might yield a forensic breakthrough in a mystery that has baffled sleuths since 2007, when three year old Madeleine disappeared from her holiday flat in Praia da Luz as her parents dined nearby. Brueckner is nearing the end of his prison term after his 2020 conviction for raping an elderly American tourist in 2005 at the same resort where Madeleine was last seen, reports the Express. He has been under suspicion in the McCann case since 2020, though he hasn't faced formal charges and denies any involvement. Just last week, German officers scoured an area near where the young girl vanished, deploying cutting-edge ground-penetrating radar in hopes of a breakthrough. Initial reports suggested that the search yielded little beyond animal remains and adult garments as prosecutors hurry to stop Brueckner from being set free. Brueckner was found guilty in 2016 of assaulting a five year old in a park, with incriminating images discovered on his computer, leading to a 15-month jail term. After getting out of prison, Brueckner allegedly told a mate in a pub during the 10th-anniversary coverage of Madeleine's disappearance that he "knew all about" what had happened to her. In the same year, he supposedly mentioned to someone else that Maddie "did not scream", but the credibility of this witness has been questioned.