March 31, 1999
Web posted at: 9:20 p.m. EST (0220 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NATO ground and air forces are searching for three U.S. soldiers who vanished Wednesday on a routine reconnaissance mission near the Yugoslavian-Macedonian border, U.S. and NATO officials said.

Helicopters from several NATO nations and ground troops including Macedonian police were combing the region.

The missing soldiers were part of a larger patrol near the Macedonian village of Kumanovo when the group decided to split up into teams.

At about 2:30 p.m. local time Wednesday (7:30 a.m. EST), the three men radioed that they had come under small-arms fire by unknown gunmen. Shortly afterward, they reported being surrounded; then radio contact was lost.

Search efforts began almost immediately, but there has been no sign of the soldiers or their Humvee.

Pentagon officials would not speculate on who might be responsible, but they indicated that Yugoslav or Serb military forces, special police units or Macedonian Serbs could have been involved.

The U.S. army troops were part of what used to be a U.N. peacekeeping mission charged with monitoring the border between Macedonia and Yugoslavia. When that mission ended in February, the troops remained as part of a NATO border force.

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