Four US soldiers on Tuesday were injured in Norway in an accident involving four vehicles, ahead of the start of a major NATO exercise, the US military said.
One soldier was shortly released after being hospitalized, and the three others are under observation in stable condition, the US Joint Information Center said in a statement.
The soldiers were in trucks delivering cargo to Kongens Gruve, Norway, in support of Trident Juncture 18, the biggest NATO exercise in recent years.
Trident Juncture 18 is to involve about 50,000 personnel from NATO allies and partner countries, about 250 aircraft, 65 vessels and up to 10,000 vehicles.
It is to take place from today to Nov. 7 in central and eastern Norway, the surrounding areas of the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea, including Iceland and the airspace of Finland and Sweden.
“The accident occurred when three vehicles collided and a fourth vehicle slid off the pavement and overturned while trying to avoid the three vehicles that had collided,” the information center said.
The vehicles and personnel in the accident were assigned to the US Army’s 51st Composite Truck Company stationed in Baumholder, Germany.
The US military is working with Norwegian authorities to investigate the accident.
The head of NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command, US Navy Admiral James Foggo, said the exercise is intended to “show NATO is capable to defend against any adversary. Not a particular country, anyone.”
Russia, which last month carried out its biggest-ever military exercises in the Far East, has not been officially identified as the intended adversary, but it is on everyone’s minds after the 2014 Ukraine crisis.
“Russia doesn’t represent a direct military threat to Norway,” Norwegian Minister of Defense Frank Bakke-Jensen told reporters.
“But in a security situation as complicated as we have today ... an incident elsewhere could very well heighten tensions in the north and we want to prepare the alliance in order to avoid any unfortunate incidents,” he added.
Additional reporting by AFP
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