Two U.S. service members have gone missing in Morocco. This comes after the two countries, among others, were taking part in an annual military exercise in the Moroccan desert, as reported by ABC 7.
According to an anonymous U.S. defense official from the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), the two service members are Army soldiers. The official explained that "they were not actively taking part in any training. The day's exercises had concluded, and, from our understanding, they were out on a recreational hike."
AFRICOM further added that a multinational search brigade had started a rescue search for the operatives. They explained in an official statement that "the incident remains under investigation, and the search is ongoing."
The incident happened on Saturday, May 2, at around 9:00 pm local time. The defense official said that "the soldiers were last seen near ocean cliffs in the vicinity of the Cap Draa Training area during scheduled training." The terrain near Cap Draa is pretty bad, too—it's a mix of mountains and desert plains.
The search brigade has spared no expense to find the service members, with personnel "immediately initiating a joint search effort". This effort includes helicopters, ships, mountain rescue units, and divers.
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The Service Members Were Taking Part in the "African Lion" War Games
The African Lion war games were first started in 2004. It sees active-duty members across different branches of the U.S. military face off with over 7,000 other service members across 30 nations.
The war games are hosted across four different countries, with it all starting in Tunisia. It also goes through Morocco, Ghana, and Senegal. The games started in April and will end soon, in early May.
Military officials have touted the war games as a "venue for strengthening regional security cooperation" and also for getting troops ready for real-life combat. However, things can be dangerous on these exercises, given how they try and make things as similar to real life as possible.
In 2012, two U.S. service members tragically died in a helicopter crash in Agadir, in the south of Morocco. This was during an African Lion exercise. But these sorts of incidents are rare, making this incident all the more shocking.
We hope that the U.S. service members are found soon.
