Mysterious lights seen over northeast El Paso were military flares, not UFOs

EL PASO, Texas -- It's a bird, it's a plane... it's a UFO? No, it's just a U.S. Army training exercise organized out of Fort Bliss.

Military officials told ABC-7 on Tuesday that recent sightings of mysterious lights over the northeast El Paso skies at night had a very simple explanation - and one that doesn't involve extraterrestrials.

"The lights seen this past weekend are artillery flares," explained Gilbert Telles Jr., a public affairs specialist at Fort Bliss. "A unit had been training that early evening at the Doña Ana training ranges."

Army troops use artillery flares as signaling devices to mark targets or light the area beneath and around them.

ABC-7 had received numerous inquiries from residents who observed the light orbs and were curious about what they had witnessed. Of course, some people took to social media speculating that it was an alien encounter, but the military reassures us that's not the case.