AMERICAN military officials said yesterday that hostile fire may have brought down a helicopter which crashed in a remote region of Afghanistan while ferrying troops into battle with Taleban militants.

Seventeen soldiers and crew aboard the aircraft were still missing as search operations began in Kunar province. “We presume that all were lost,” a US official said last night.

If confirmed as hostile fire and no survivors are found, the crash will count as the United States’s single heaviest loss of life in combat in the 3½-year conflict. The attack will also mark the first time that a coalition aircraft has been shot down in Afghanistan since the conflict to oust the Taleban began, representing a dangerous development for the coalition.

The Mujahidin, who fought the Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, finally turned their fortunes when they acquired the ability to shoot down aircraft with stinger missile launchers provided for them by their American backers.

Many stingers have remained in circulation and some are believed to be in the hands of Taleban fighters, some of whom fought against the Russians. The Americans have long worried that their own weapons might be used against them. Even before the US military had released news of the crash, a spokesman for the militant group had telephoned news organisations in Kabul claiming responsibility for shooting down the helicopter. He said that it had been hit by a rocket and that video of the attack would soon be released.

Asadullah Wafa, the provincial governor, said that local officials had heard rocket fire as the helicopter was flying overhead, and then had seen the aircraft crash. The US military said that the helicopter was carrying members of rapid reaction forces, including elite Navy Seals, to join in Operation Red Wing, an offensive close to the border with Pakistan. “

Initial reports indicate the crash may have been caused by hostile fire,” a military statement said.

The crash comes amid growing signs of a Taleban resurgence that has claimed hundreds of lives in an apparent spring offensive by the ousted regime. Armed clashes and coalition air strikes have escalated sharply as Afghanistan gets closer to parliamentary elections scheduled for September. More than 660 people have been killed in Afghanistan since March — including 465 suspected insurgents, 29 US troops, 43 Afghan police and soldiers, and 125 civilians — a level unprecedented since the Taleban was ousted in 2001.

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