MOROCCO – A search and rescue team has recovered the body of a second US service member who went missing near a cliff during a training exercise near Cap Draa, Morocco, the US Army and Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces said on Wednesday.
US and Moroccan searchers found and retrieved the remains of a US service woman on Tuesday from a coastal cave roughly 500 metres (550 yards) from where the two soldiers went missing, the US Army said in a statement.
The Army identified her as Specialist Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, an air and missile defence crew member in an artillery regiment.
The body of the other soldier, 1st Lieutenant Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., was recovered on May 9.
More than 1,000 US and Moroccan military and civilian personnel took part in the search, the Army said, covering an area of more than 21,300 square kilometres (8,200 square miles).
The bodies of Collington and Key Jr. were being returned to the US aboard a military plane as of Wednesday.
The US service members were participating in African Lion, the US Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) largest joint exercise between US forces, NATO allies, and African partner nations.
The largest part of the exercise takes place in Morocco, involving approximately 5,000 personnel from more than 40 countries, according to AFRICOM.
Source: Reuters
