Three senior Afghan military officers who failed to return to a U.S. training base in Cape Cod have been taken into custody while trying to cross into Canada, according to news reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WCVB-TV Boston reports that an unidentified “high-level law-enforcement source” told reporter Karen Anderson, that the men were detained at the Rainbow Bridge Canadian\/U.S. border crossing near Niagara Falls on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The TV station quotes an unidentified “high-level law-enforcement source” for its reports. The details could not immediately be confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NBC News, quoting “top Massachusetts law enforcement officials, also reports the three were detained at the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three soldiers from the Afghan National Army arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 11 to take part in a two-week training exercise at Camp Edwards, a National Guard training facility located at Joint Base Cape Cod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were last spotted at the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis, about 20 miles from the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday that three officers did not appear to pose a threat to the public and may be trying to defect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cape Cod Times, quoting an unidentified spokesman for the U.S. Central Command that is sponsoring the training exercises, reported Monday that the men were on an off-base chaperoned excursion “to introduce them to cultural aspects of American life” when they failed to return to base Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to reporters, Patrick said the U.S. military does not believe the three Afghans pose a danger to the public. He said the military is investigating a number of possibilities, including that they “might be trying to defect.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officers, who were identified as Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada and Capt. Noorullah Aminy, are among 200 soldiers from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia taking part in the tactical exercises at Camp Edwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cape Cod Times quotes military officials as saying base and exercise officials are working with local and state authorities to locate the men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Central Command spokesman tells the newspaper that the three \u2014 like all participants in the field exercises \u2014 do not have access to weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Massachusetts National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. James Sahady tells Boston.com that not all 200 foreign participants are locked down on the base. The officers, who are cleared by the State Department to participate in the program, are permitted to go to dinner or other activities off-base without restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The camp is a 15,000-acre area inside Joint Base Cape Cod that includes a replica of a forward operating base used by soldiers in places such as Afghanistan, according to the JBCC website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sahady said 15 officers and senior enlisted personnel from Afghanistan were taking part in the annual training program, which has been held since 2004. The two-week exercise is scheduled to end Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contributing: Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAMP EDWARDS, Massachusetts \u2013 Police and military officials were searching Sunday for three soldiers from the Afghan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":86292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2385],"class_list":["post-92273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JJWZRG4TJVGNZBQPMZ2RCJIREY","arc_canonical_url":"\/2014\/09\/22\/reports-3-missing-afghan-soldiers-detained-at-canadian-border\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n