The Body of Missing American Soldier Found in Morocco

SadaNews - The Moroccan Royal Armed Forces and the U.S. Army announced yesterday, Wednesday, the discovery of the body of an American soldier who was missing near a rocky cliff during military exercises close to the Cape Drâa area in Morocco. This comes days after the body of another American soldier, who went missing with her at the beginning of this month, was found.

The Moroccan forces stated in a statement on the X platform that "the body of the second missing American soldier was found at Cape Drâa," adding that intensive search operations - initiated by the Royal Armed Forces in coordination with U.S. forces - resulted in the discovery and retrieval of the body of the American soldier, who had been missing since May 2nd, at a rocky cliff in the Cape Drâa area on May 12th.

The U.S. Army explained that American and Moroccan search teams retrieved the soldier's body from a coastal cave about 500 meters from where she went missing, and another soldier's body was found earlier this week.

The Army mentioned that the soldier's name was Maria Simone Collington (19 years old), and she was a member of the air and missile defense crew in an artillery battalion. It added that over a thousand military and civilian personnel from the United States and Morocco participated in the search operations, which covered an area exceeding 21,000 square kilometers.

The bodies of the two soldiers were returned to the United States on a military aircraft yesterday, Wednesday.

The body of the other soldier, First Lieutenant Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., was found on May 9th.

Search operations began after the report of the two missing American soldiers, which occurred on May 2nd during their training missions in the rugged rocky area of Tan-Tan province in southern Morocco.

It is worth noting that the "African Lion 2026" maneuvers began on April 27th, involving more than 5,000 armed forces personnel from 41 countries, including the United States.

The "African Lion" maneuvers, which began their first edition in 2007, are among the largest joint military exercises organized by U.S. Africa Command on the continent, held annually in Morocco to develop on-ground coordination between U.S. forces and their NATO allied countries, alongside several allied nations in Africa.