KABUL, Afghanistan — Two American soldiers are missing in western Afghanistan, a spokesman for the international forces said here on Friday, as a Taliban spokesman claimed that the insurgents had recovered the bodies of two drowned soldiers.

A NATO spokesman said that he did not yet have information on whether the missing Americans were wounded in a battle with the Taliban and that there was no confirmation that the two were dead.

“The search is ongoing, and we hope they are alive,” said the spokesman, Lt. Darin Russell of the United States Navy. An intensive search mission by a joint NATO and Afghan force ran into trouble, apparently after encountering insurgents, with 25 soldiers wounded, Lieutenant Russell said.

The missing soldiers were paratroopers from the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. They were on a resupply mission on Wednesday but did not return.

“We are doing everything we can to find them,” said Capt. Jane Campbell of the United States Navy, a spokeswoman for the international forces.

The Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, told Reuters by telephone that the bodies of the drowned soldiers had been recovered Wednesday in the western province of Badghis.

Reuters also reported that the province’s police chief, Abdul Jabar, said that the two were Americans and that they had drowned during a gun battle.

The last time a soldier was reported missing was on June 30 in eastern Afghanistan. Weeks later, the Taliban posted a 28-minute video on jihadist Web sites in which the soldier, Bowe R. Bergdahl, identified himself and said that he had been captured when he lagged behind on a patrol. There has been no public word on his status since.

NATO also announced the deaths of three soldiers, including two Americans, after roadside bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.