US rescue aircraft are reported to have fired rockets while rescuing a downed US airman yesterday.

At least eight people were injured after coming under fire as they inspected the area near where the US warplane crashed in eastern Libya, medical sources and eyewitnesses said.

The eight, all men, were admitted to Benghazi's Jala Hospital shortly after a US F-15 jet crash-landed in a field in Ghot Sultan, a village about 50 kilometres east of Benghazi.

"We went to the place of the plane, then we heard that the pilots were somewhere. We took the road to see them and when we started to approach some rockets were fired at us," said Mohammed Abdul Aaty, whose father and brother were both hurt in the incident.

He said his brother, Hamdy, had already undergone an operation to amputate his leg after being hit by shrapnel.

Abdullah Youssef Ali, another villager who was at the scene when the incident occurred, said a group of locals had gone by car and on foot into the hills near where the plane crashed to look for the pilots.

"Another group came back and told us they saw the pilot. We went there, and when we got closer a rocket landed very close to us, right in the middle of us, and several more followed."

A medical source at the hospital said eight people had been brought in for treatment after the incident, a number confirmed by Abdul Aaty who said he had come into the facility with his father, brother and six others.

None of those injured in the incident could confirm who or what fired the rockets.

"God only knows, we couldn't see any plane," Ali said.

Earlier, media reports suggested that an aircraft involved in the rescue of one of the aircrew who ejected from the F-15 before it crashed may have opened fire as it attempted to extract the American pilot.

But eyewitnesses said it was impossible to tell, and they did not speculate about who was responsible.

The incident occurred firmly inside territory controlled by rebels battling the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and no government forces were known to be near the site at the time.