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US military searches for three Afghan soldiers missing from Cape Cod base
Three Afghan soldiers found at Canada border after leaving Cape Cod base
(about 2 hours later)
As police and US military officials c searched for three Afghanistan national army officers who went missing during a training exercise at a Cape Cod military base, Governor Deval Patrick said one of the possibilities being investigated is that they may be trying to find a way to stay in the United States.
Three Afghan national army soldiers who did not return to a training exercise at US military base in Massachusetts were found trying to cross the Canadian border, local media reported on Monday.
Patrick said Monday that the military does not believe that the three soldiers pose a danger to the public.
The men were taken into custody at a border crossing near Niagara Falls, New York, WCVB-TV reported, citing an unidentified law enforcement source. Military officials did not immediately respond to request for comment and the report could not be independently verified.
“I don’t have a reason to believe that they pose a threat. They were vetted by the military, they were cleared by the military,” Patrick told reporters while he visited a preschool program in Quincy.
The three soldiers were reported missing from Joint Base Cape Cod, located in a beach resort area, after a Saturday trip to a nearby mall and are not viewed as a security threat, according to a spokesman for the Massachusetts national guard, which helps run the facility.
“There is a lot of speculation within the military that they may be trying to defect,” he said.
The men were not armed and had no access to weapons during their training, officials said.
Lieutenant Colonel James Sahady of the Massachusetts National Guard said there were no details to report on the search Monday.
US military officials are trying to find the three soldiers, Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Captain Noorullah Aminyar, according to a spokeswoman for US Central Command.
Military officials said the Afghan soldiers had been participating in a US Central Command regional cooperation training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod. They arrived at Camp Edwards on 11 September and were last seen Saturday at the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis during an off day for the program.
The men, part of a group of 200 soldiers from six nations participating in the exercise, were in the country legally and had broken no laws by failing to return to the base, the spokeswoman said.
The soldiers were reported missing by base security personnel Saturday night. They were identified as Major Jan Mohammad Arash, Captain Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Captain Noorullah Aminyar.
The regional cooperation training exercises have been held annually since 2004 to promote cooperation and interoperability among forces, build functional capacity, practice peacekeeping operations and enhance readiness.
The year’s exercise, which involves more than 200 participants from six nations including the US, is scheduled to wrap up Wednesday. There are about a dozen more Afghan soldiers still participating in the exercise.
Military officials from Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia are also participants.
