US 'tried to hide bomb blunder'

Many of those hit in the raid were children

By Kylie Morris BBC correspondent in Kabul

The Afghan Government has warned against any cover-up in the investigation into a US airstrike which killed nearly 50 people at a wedding party at the start of July.

The warning came amid reports that a preliminary United Nations investigation into the bombing had found that US officials removed vital evidence from the site after the incident.

The UN probe is said to have found that US troops cleaned the area - removing shrapnel, bullets and traces of blood.

According to The Times newspaper, the UN report says there was no corroboration of the US claim that the aircraft that launched the attack had first been targeted from the ground.

Weeks or hours?

The Afghan Government says that 48 civilians died and more than 100 others were injured when US planes bombed targets in central Uruzgan Province on 1 July.

The Pentagon insists it chooses targets carefully

The American side said it needed several weeks to collect evidence and make a full report.

But locals say US officials arrived just hours after the raid, taking photographs and filming the scene and the bodies.

The UN investigation is also reported to have found that women at the bomb site had their hands tied.

Inquiry continues

A spokesman for Afghanistan's foreign ministry says it is premature to judge whether or not there has been a cover-up, as investigations are still ongoing, but warned there should be no cover-up from any side.

He said the Afghan Government is continuing to look into the matter, and says it is taking the allegations that women's hands were forcibly tied very seriously.

A spokesman for the United Nations in Afghanistan stressed the UN report is only preliminary and neither fully documented nor sufficiently substantiated.

But he added that an in-depth investigation would be completed to ensure that such a tragedy did not happen again, and that the protection of civilian lives becomes a primary concern in the fight against terror.

The American embassy in Kabul had no comment on the report.