A U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed late Friday during combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 American soldiers who were on board.

The helicopter went down near Asadabad, the capital of the mountainous eastern province of Kunar.

The U.S. military reported there were no indications that the crash was a result of enemy fire, though Taliban insurgents took credit, claiming they had shot down the chopper.

U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Tamara Lawrence confirmed to reporters that all 10 servicemen on the helicopter were killed. She said the cause was still being investigated, but hostile fire had been ruled out.

CTV's Sarah Galashan, reporting from the Canadian base in Kandahar, was told by military officials Saturday that no Canadians were on board.

The transport helicopter was conducting operations on a mountaintop landing zone when it crashed near an area where a large U.S. military base houses hundreds of Marines and special forces commandos.

No Canadian soldiers are based in the area, located about 240 kilometres east of Kabul on the border with Pakistan.

Kunar is known as one of several provinces across the south and east of Afghanistan inhabited by insurgents.

Lawrence said little information is available, but the investigation is underway.

"They're still doing rescue and recovery operations, so there's just a lot of unknown factors at this time," Lawrence said.

With files from The Associated Press