Evidence hunt over shootings

MILITARY investigators have visited the Afghanistan villages where US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is alleged to have carried out a shooting rampage.

Criminal investigators visited the villages this week to collect forensic evidence, officials said

Investigators stayed away from the shooting sites for more than three weeks to avoid aggravating tensions.

It was not known how much or what kind of evidence they were able to find so long after the shootings.

Bales has been charged with 17 counts of murder and is being held in a US military prison in Kansas.