PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan — Ordered to investigate an airstrike by American warplanes that killed at least 17 Afghan men on Tuesday, Afghan and American investigators have reached starkly different conclusions about the identity of the victims.

The bombing, just south of the Afghan capital, set off the latest dispute over the human toll of American bombing in the country.

The Afghan investigation was up-close and gruesomely personal. As Zer Gul, a local police commander, sorted through the body parts at the scene, in the Azra District of Logar Province, he concluded that nearly all the victims were police officers under his command, along with a few volunteers who were allies of the police force. He recognized the uniforms they wore, he said, but he also knew some of his own men by body parts he could identify.

“Anyone who denies any police were killed are liars and rumormongers,” Mr. Gul said in an interview on Wednesday. “Definitely American forces bombed our front line and 12 police were killed here and five more were killed on another outpost. They bombed our lines instead of the Taliban’s lines.”