According to the Siauliu Krastas newspaper in the northern-central city of Siauliai, unidentified assailants attacked the African-American soldiers, serving in Lithuania as NATO air police patrolling Baltic air space. Both soldiers were hit in the face and lost teeth.
Lithuania's Republika newspaper said that, after a scandalous Thanksgiving Day celebration in a Siauliai nightclub, the two Americans decided to spend the weekend in a casino in the country's capital of Vilnius.
Another Lithuanian newspaper, Lietuvos Rytas, reported that one of the soldiers bullied a local man, causing a fight, when he was leaving the nightclub in Siauliai.
Chief of the U.S. contingent in Lithuania Major Joseph Locke said he hoped the attack was not racially motivated.
This is one in a series of clashes between NATO servicemen in Lithuania and local residents. Earlier this month, unidentified people beat up and robbed two British soldiers.
Beginning with March 2004, NATO member states have been deploying their contingents at the Zokniai air base outside Siauliai on a rotational basis.
