The US has said six children and two adults were killed when its forces attacked a compound in southeastern Afghanistan at the weekend.
The news, revealed by the US military today, will be a further embarrassment to US forces after the military said it had killed nine children in a bungled airstrike on Saturday, also in the southeast.
The six children were found dead after a US air and ground attack on a compound used by a militant to store arms near Gardez in Paktia province, US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan Hilferty told a news briefing.
In both incidents, the military did not reveal the children's deaths until it was asked specific questions by
journalists.
It has been criticised in the past for failing to reveal civilian deaths promptly, most notably in July last year when a helicopter gunship fired on a wedding party in Uruzgan province.