US military officials told CNN that the rescued soldier managed to "evade the enemy" and has been successfully rescued by US forces.

CNN reported there was no word on the fate of three other soldiers who were part of the same special forces reconnaissance team missing since the MH-47 Chinook chopper was downed Tuesday in rebel-infested Kunar province near the Pakistani border.

"There's a search operation ongoing in Kunar for recovery of the missing team. And there's an operation ongoing to deny enemy influence up there," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara said earlier.

The military said it believed a rocket propelled grenade hit the helicopter which went down killing 16 military personnel. The dead included eight elite US Navy SEALs and eight members of an army special operations aviation regiment -- the biggest loss of US troops in a single attack since 2001.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack and said they have captured a US soldier -- a claim the US military refused to confirm or deny.

US warplanes on Friday bombed militant positions in Kunar, the military said.

An Afghan government official said civilians had been killed in the air strike at Chical village but he could give no figures.

"There are definitely some civilians among the dead. The operation is ongoing with Afghan and coalition forces on the ground," the official said on condition of anonymity.

US Colonel James Yonts told AFP Saturday that "all possible efforts are taken to prevent non-combatant injuries and deaths." But he did not exclude the possibility that civilians had been struck in the bombing.

Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi said the militia would release a film showing the bodies of seven Afghans whom he claimed had been captured and killed for working for the Americans last week.

"We will release the film of the seven American spies we killed, either today or tomorrow. We will also release a film of the American soldier we've captured but that will take two or three days," he told AFP by phone from an undisclosed location.

US military officials say the search for the missing soldiers has been hampered by torrential rain and the rugged mountainous terrain as well as the presence of insurgents in Kunar, a stronghold of both the Taliban and the Hebz-e-Islami militant group.

The BBC quoted an unidentified Afghan official as saying fresh air raids took place on Sunday in Kunar's Nangalam Valley where Afghan ground forces were engaged in heavy fighting with insurgents.

Afghan defence ministry and provincial officials were unavailable for comment.

"The Americans continued bombing in Manogai district today but we have no casualties," Hakimi said.

Kunar is a known hub of rebels from the hardline Islamic Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on the US-led coalition and Afghan forces nearly four years after their regime was toppled.

Attacks have been gaining in ferocity in recent weeks ahead of September 18 parliamentary elections.

More than 500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in fighting this summer, almost 40 in the last two days.

More than 18,000 coalition forces, most of them American, are deployed in the country to hunt down Taliban militants and their allies.

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