LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A U.S. Army soldier who fled to Canada rather than return to Iraq has disappeared again, this time just a day after surrendering to the military.

Pvt. Kyle Snyder, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., told The Associated Press he was supposed to return by bus to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Louisville on Tuesday but didn’t go. He said he went AWOL after Fort Knox officials told him he would be sent back to his unit, the 94th Engineer Battalion.

Snyder returned to the United States on Saturday, after his lawyer said he had reached a deal to receive an other-than-honorable discharge.

“I came back in good faith,” Snyder said Wednesday by phone. “I put my trust in them one more time. Why should I put my trust in them again when I can just go back to Canada?”

He did not disclose his location.

Messages seeking comment were left with Gini Sinclair, a Fort Knox spokeswoman, but were not immediately returned Wednesday night.

Snyder, a former combat engineer, left the United States in April 2005 while on leave to avoid a second tour in Iraq. He said he worked as a welder and at a children’s health clinic in Canada.

Snyder has said he was put on patrol when sent to Iraq in 2004, which he said he was not trained to do, and that he began to turn against the war when he saw an innocent Iraqi killed by U.S. gunfire.


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