3 missing US soldiers found dead in Lithuania, search continues for 4th soldier
US Army
(PABRADĖ, Lithuania) — Three of the four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing during a training mission near Pabradė, Lithuania, last week were found dead on Monday, but the search is ongoing for the fourth soldier, the Army said.
Their identities were not released.
The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the soldiers were in when they went missing was removed from a swamp early Monday morning after six days of work to retrieve it, the Army said.
The soldiers, who are all based in Fort Stewart, Georgia, went missing on Tuesday during a training exercise, the Army said.
On Wednesday, their 63-ton-vehicle was found submerged in about 15 feet of water and “clay-like mud” in a training area, the Army said.
“Most likely, the M88 drove into the swamp,” and the vehicle “may have just gone diagonally to the bottom,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene told ABC News via phone last week.
The multiday search effort was complicated by the swamp’s muddy conditions, officials said.
The Army said last week it brought in assets including “a large capacity slurry pump, cranes, more than 30 tons of gravel, and subject matter experts.”
“The Polish Armed Forces have also volunteered a unit of military engineers, which is bringing in an additional water pump, tracked recovery vehicles, other additional equipment and supplies needed along with 150 personnel,” the Army said.
On Saturday, a U.S. Navy dive team arrived at the site, joining Lithuanian divers, the Army said.
(TORONTO) — At least 12 people have been injured in a shooting at a pub in Toronto on Friday night, police said.
The victims all ranged in age from their 20s to mid-50s, according to the Toronto Police Service. Six of them suffered gunshot wounds, but there were no life-threatening injuries,
Police said they are searching for three male suspects.
The Toronto Police Service said they were deploying all available resources to locate and arrest those responsible and that more updates will be given on Saturday morning.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — American Marc Fogel, who has been held in Russia since being arrested on drug charges in 2021, has been freed, according to the White House.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are able to announce that Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia,” White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement. “President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.”
Fogel, an American teacher who was arrested in Russia and was serving a 14-year sentence there, was determined to be “wrongfully detained” by then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken in October 2024, the State Department confirmed to ABC News in late December.
“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” Waltz added in the statement.
Fogel was a teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, where many diplomats from the U.S. Embassy send their children.
He was arrested in August 2021 when he landed at a Moscow airport. He was accused of trying to bring in 11 grams of marijuana, and eight grams of hash oil was reportedly found in his luggage.
He was sentenced to 14 years on a drug smuggling charge that his family has said was trumped up, and the U.S. had called for his humanitarian release.
The U.S. tried but was unable to include Fogel in the large prisoner swap in August 2024 that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, a State Department spokesperson said last year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “revenge” on Friday after the Israeli military said one of the four bodies recently released by Hamas did not include a hostage.
Hamas, the militant group that governs the war-torn Gaza Strip, said it had handed over the remains of four deceased Israeli hostages on Thursday: 32-year-old Shiri Bibas; her two children — Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 8 1/2 months; and 84-year-old Oded Lifschitz.
After conducting a forensic analysis, Israeli officials positively identified three of the returned bodies as Lifschitz and the Bibas children but said the fourth was not that of their mother nor any other hostage, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which accused Hamas of committing a “very serious violation” of the current ceasefire agreement.
“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. “Not only did they kidnap the father, Yarden Bibas, the young mother, Shiri, and their two small babies. In an unspeakably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri to her little children, the little angels, and they put the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin.”
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he added.
Hamas said in a statement Friday that it “will examine these claims very seriously” and “will announce the results clearly.” The group also called for the return of the body that Israel said is that of a Palestinian woman.
“We point out the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies, which may be the result of the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians,” Hamas added.
The IDF, citing “the assessment of the professional authorities,” said Ariel and Kfir Bibas “were brutally murdered in captivity in November 2023 by terrorists.” Their father, 35-year-old Yarden Bibas, was also kidnapped during the Hamas-led terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but he survived and was freed earlier this month.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, director-general of Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office, said in a statement Friday that the remains of Shiri Bibas were mixed with other human remains beneath the rubble of the place where she was being held in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes “deliberately” destroyed the area, “killing her and her children.”
“Netanyahu himself is the one who issued the orders for the direct and merciless bombing, and he is the one who bears full responsibility for killing her and her children in a horrific and brutal manner,” Al-Thawabta added, noting that the Israeli military has killed more than 30,000 Palestinian women and children in Gaza since the current war began.
A spokesperson for Nir Oz, the kibbutz in southern Israel where the Bibas family were abducted from their home, issued a statement Friday apparently in response to Netanyahu vowing “take revenge.”
“We woke up to a difficult morning,” the kibbutz spokesperson said. “At the same time, we adhere to our values and the clear demands of the Bibas family at this time: Release, not revenge.”
Hamas is expected to free another six living hostages on Saturday followed by four more bodies next week as part of the agreed terms for the first phase of the ceasefire, which began Jan. 19 and is supposed to last 42 days.
Negotiations to set the terms for the second phase have not started, but Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that mediators are pushing to have talks begin as soon as possible to allow enough time for discussion before it begins. Hamas has accused Israel of avoiding talks and says it’s ready to negotiate.
