{"id":220039,"date":"2026-05-05T15:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/220039\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:20:13","slug":"2-us-soldiers-still-missing-after-being-swept-into-atlantic-during-morocco-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/220039\/","title":{"rendered":"2 US soldiers still missing after being swept into Atlantic during Morocco exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAn MH-53E Super Stallion helicopter transports supplies to a training camp at Cap Draa, Morocco, in this undated photo. Two American soldiers went missing while at Cap Draa in support of exercise African Lion over the weekend, prompting search and rescue operations. (Scott Youngblood\/U.S. Navy)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

VICENZA, Italy \u2014 The search for two U.S. soldiers who went missing near an oceanside cliff in Morocco over the weekend continued into its fourth day Tuesday, a defense official said.<\/p>\n

The U.S., Morocco and others launched the mission on the ground, in the air and on the water after the soldiers were reported missing Saturday<\/a> near Cap Draa Training Area in the country\u2019s southwest, where the Sahara desert meets the Atlantic Ocean. <\/p>\n

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, the defense official told Stars and Stripes that the operation remained active and that the focus \u201cis on locating the missing soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soldiers were swept out to sea after a human-chain effort failed to rescue a service member who had fallen from the cliffside, according to news reports.<\/p>\n

They were among thousands of international personnel taking part in African Lion, U.S. Africa Command\u2019s largest annual drill<\/a> on the continent. <\/p>\n

The day\u2019s exercise activities had concluded, and the soldiers were off duty when they went missing, said a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday to discuss details of the rescue operation. <\/p>\n

But none of the officials who have spoken with Stars and Stripes could say what the soldiers were doing or how they had fallen into the sea. They were last seen around 9 p.m., the Moroccan military said on Facebook. <\/p>\n

Details of the attempt to rescue the pair have trickled out through anonymous sources but appear to conflict.<\/p>\n

Unidentified U.S. military officials speaking to The New York Times<\/a> said the two soldiers were out on a hike at the training range when one is believed to have fallen off the cliff into the surf below. Other military personnel hiking nearby quickly formed a human chain down the cliffside in a rescue attempt.<\/p>\n

But reports differ on what happened next. A U.S. official who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity said two members of the human chain were swept into the ocean but the original fall victim was rescued. <\/p>\n

According to a second version, reported by CBS News<\/a> and citing unidentified officials, when the human chain attempt failed, a soldier jumped into the water to try to save the one who fell in, but the second one was immediately hit by a wave. <\/p>\n

As both then struggled to get back to shore, a third jumped in but was unable to save them and eventually returned to shore, according to the network, which had a crew at Cap Draa to cover the military exercises when the major search operations began. <\/p>\n

The multinational search included U.S. and Moroccan helicopters and surveillance drones, French and Moroccan navy frigates, and Moroccan mountaineers and divers, the defense official said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tA Navy rescue swimmer practices search and rescue procedures during a training exercise on April 26, 2026. Two American soldiers remain missing after being swept into the Atlantic Ocean off the southwestern coast of Morocco over the weekend. (John Hetherington\/U.S. Navy)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Air Force, Marine Corps and Army units, including Special Forces and the Vicenza-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, were involved in the search along with several Moroccan units, the official said.<\/p>\n

The military is withholding the unit of the missing service members while an investigation and search-and-rescue operation were ongoing, said the U.S. official who spoke to Stars and Stripes over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The Army\u2019s Southern European Task Force, Africa leads African Lion, which is hosted in four African countries. Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal are the others. Training events span the \u201cfull spectrum of military operations,\u201d a military statement last month said.<\/p>\n

Some 5,000 personnel from more than 40 countries, including NATO allies, were expected to take part in the Morocco phase of the drills this year from April 27 to May 8.<\/p>\n

The drills test technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence while helping build up the U.S. military\u2019s partnership with African counterparts to bolster regional security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working to prevent Islamic terrorists in Africa from using regional safe havens to strike the U.S. homeland,\u201d Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in a statement last month. <\/p>\n

SETAF-AF did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for further information. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An MH-53E Super Stallion helicopter transports supplies to a training camp at Cap Draa, Morocco, in this undated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[112111,112112,112110,57436,13311,110711,165,96664,112109,29357],"class_list":{"0":"post-220039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-morocco","8":"tag-2-soldiers-missing-african-lion","9":"tag-2-soldiers-missing-morocco","10":"tag-2-soldiers-swept-into-atlantic","11":"tag-african-lion","12":"tag-africom","13":"tag-cap-draa","14":"tag-morocco","15":"tag-setaf-af","16":"tag-southern-european-task-force","17":"tag-us-africa-command"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116522649355102391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}