One of the two U.S. soldiers missing off the coast of Morocco leapt into the Atlantic to try to save the other’s life, defense officials said.
The two soldiers were in the country to participate in a multinational training exercise known as African Lion, which takes place every year and is overseen by United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).
The pair are understood to have been part of a group who used their recreation time Saturday to leave the Cap Draa Training Area, near the desert city of Tan-Tan, to scale some nearby clifftops to watch the sun setting to the west.
One of the soldiers, who was unable to swim, fell into the ocean around 9 p.m. local time. This prompted the rest of the group to form a human chain using their belts to try to pull them out of the water, but this proved unsuccessful, according to CBS News.
It was at this point the second soldier jumped in to try to save their colleague, only to be hit by a wave. When neither could make it back to shore, a third entered the ocean but could not reach them and had to return for their own safety.
Officials told CBS that multiple aircraft, drones, divers and ships have been dispatched to search for the two soldiers along the country’s southwestern coastline, with a Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft joining the hunt Tuesday after setting out from Sigonella Naval Air Station in Italy.
The Moroccan military is also reportedly sending out scuba divers to search the caves dotting that region of the North African shoreline.
“The incident remains under investigation, and the search is ongoing,” AFRICOM said in a statement. “Our focus is on the service members involved and their families.”
The identities and ranks of the missing pair have not yet been made public.
The annual African Lion training initiative they were taking part in has been held annually since 2004, running from April to May and involving American forces in war games with allies from the continent and NATO states at bases across Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal.
With some 5,500 personnel from more than 30 nations participating, African Lion is the largest AFRICOM drill on the continent, according to Stars and Stripes.
The venture has been credited with strengthening regional ties between allies in a part of the world that has seen disillusioned military officers lead coups against democratically-elected governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years.
Two U.S. Marines were killed taking part in African Lion in 2012 when they were involved in a helicopter crash in the southern Moroccan city of Agadir.
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