BOSTON — Three Afghan National Army soldiers who did not return to a training exercise at a U.S. military base in Massachusetts were found trying to cross the Canadian border, a Massachusetts State Police official said on Monday.
The men presented themselves at a border crossing near Niagara Falls, New York, said David Procopio, a spokesman with the Massachusetts State Police.
“We were notified this morning by federal law enforcement that the three missing soldiers had been located at a border checkpoint by Niagara Falls and were being interviewed by federal authorities,” Procopio said. “We were told that they presented themselves to the security checkpoint.”
Military officials did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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 were not viewed as a security threat, according to a spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, which helps run the facility. The men were not armed and had no access to weapons during their training, officials said.
The three soldiers, Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar, were part of a group of 200 soldiers from six nations participating in the exercise. They were in the country legally and had broken no laws by failing to return to the base, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command.