In January, a soldier in the Afghanistan army who went missing
during a training exercise at a U.S. military base in Massachusetts was
granted asylum by the United States.
Two men from Afghanistan being trained by the U.S. military have disappeared from an Air Force base in Georgia and were being sought by federal authorities, officials said on Tuesday.
The two Afghan air force students failed to show up for duty on Monday at their regular maintenance training at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, an Air Force spokesman said in a statement.
The
two men have been at the base since February, and were screened prior
to their arrival in the United States more than a year ago, he said.
The students do not pose any apparent threat, the spokesman added.
The reason the men might have left the base was not known.
Federal agencies were trying to locate the individuals and return them to the proper authorities, the spokesman said.
In
January, a soldier in the Afghanistan army who went missing during a
training exercise at a U.S. military base in Massachusetts was granted
asylum by the United States.
The soldier was one
of three Afghans who turned themselves in at a Canadian border crossing
in New York state in 2014 after disappearing from an exercise, provoking
a search by military officials and state police.
The
missing Afghan nationals in Georgia are assigned to the 81st Fighter
Squadron, which was re-activated in January and charged with training
Afghan airmen, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
More
than 160,000 Afghans have left their country for Europe this year, most
spurred by poor job prospects and worsening security as Taliban
insurgents grow more powerful after the bulk of NATO troops withdrew at
the end of 2014.
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