KABUL, June 30: The bodies of 16 US troops have been recovered from the crash of a US helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, but four more soldiers are unaccounted for and some may have been captured, the BBC said on Thursday.

A report on the network’s Web site quoted unidentified US military officials on the recovery of the bodies from the site of Tuesday’s crash in Kunar province.

According to the BBC, officials said there was hope some of those unaccounted for were alive, but it also quoted a correspondent as saying they may have been captured by guerillas.

The report said some of those unaccounted for had been soldiers fighting on the ground.

Gen Aminullah Patyani, army commander for eastern Afghanistan, said ‘a few bodies’ had been found at the crash site in an area about 30kms northwest of Asadabad, but he did not know how many.

He said the search was still going on and he had no information about US troops being captured by guerillas.

A US official said in Washington that all 17 troops aboard the helicopter, who included elite US Navy Seals, were presumed to have died in the crash.

The MH-47 Chinook helicopter, a Special Forces variant of the US military’s CH-47 twin-rotor workhorse, crashed after being hit by guerilla fire, the US military said.—Reuters