The Afghan President Mr Hamid Karzai this evening dismissed reports the US had covered up evidence of air strikes on four villages that locals say killed dozens of civilians celebrating a wedding.
But a local man who lost 13 close family members said US ground troops had surrounded and searched one village immediately after the raid, removed shrapnel, handcuffed women and prevented the wounded leaving for hospital for three hours.
Mr Karzai said around 46 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the July 1st raid, which became a public relations disaster for the US in its bid to win over broad Afghan support for its self-styled "war on terror".
A preliminary UN report two to three days after the attack questioned US assertions that the air strikes had been in response to enemy fire and suggested the US army knew much more than it was initially willing to admit about casualties.
The UN said the worst hit village, close to Deh Rawud in the central province of Uruzgan, had been visited and "cleaned" by US troops immediately after the air strikes.
But Mr Karzai, speaking to reporters in the southern city of Kandahar after visiting the attack sites last night, said the initial UN report was not correct and denied US troops had visited villages or handcuffed women in the strike's aftermath.
"There was no cover-up...I didn't hear it from the people. If there was anything like that the people would have told me," he said.