The body of a second US navy sailor who was captured in eastern Afghanistan last week has been recovered, according to US and Afghan officials.

25-year-old Jarod Newlove's body was recovered in Logar province on Wednesday evening.

US military officials said his family had been notified of his death.

"The coalition told our criminal police director of the district that the body belonged to the foreign soldier they were looking for," Mohammad Rahim Amin, a local government chief in the Baraki Barak district in western Logar, said.

Newlove and another sailor, Justin McNeley, went missing last week in Logar province. McNeley's body was recovered on Sunday.

The Taliban initially said that Newlove was captured alive. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, did not offer an explanation for how he died.

Mujahid did, however, tell The Associated Press news agency in Kabul that two days ago the Taliban left the "body of a dead American soldier for the US forces".

'Security tightened'

Both sailors were assigned to a training school for Afghan security forces, according to US military officials. But the school is headquartered in Kabul.

Nato officials have not explained why the two sailors were traveling in Logar, an increasingly dangerous province in eastern Afghanistan.

General Mustafa Mosseini, the chief of police of Logar province, said Nato troops removed Newlove's body on Wednesday. He said he believed that the body had been washed downstream after rains on Tuesday night.

Mosseini also noted that in recent days, the Taliban were being pressured by Nato forces in the area.

"The security was being tightened," he said. "Searches continued from both air and the ground. Militants were moving into Pakistan."