ZAMBOANGA, Philippines ? A U.S. salvage team has found the remains of five American servicemen killed in last month’s crash of an Army helicopter participating in a counterterrorism drill in the southern Philippines, a U.S. official said Saturday.

Maj. Cynthia Teramae said a search team also found portions of the main wreckage of the MH-47E Chinook helicopter, which was carrying eight Army and two Air Force personnel when it crashed Feb. 22 in deep waters off the southern tip of Negros island. Three bodies were found immediately after the crash; two others remain missing.

The latest recovery was Friday, and the remains will be sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for identification, then returned to relatives for burial, Teramae told a news briefing.

The MH-47E was one of two Chinooks returning to a Philippine air base on Mactan island after dropping off the final batch of a 160 Special Forces and their equipment on Basilan island near Zamboanga, about 550 miles south of Manila.

The Special Forces troops are part of a U.S. military contingent involved in a six-month training exercise aimed at helping Philippine troops destroy Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. The rebels, who have been linked to the al-Qaida terror network, have been holding an American couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan, and a Filipino nurse hostage on Basilan for 10 months.