PESHAWAR: Friendly fire killed 13 Pakistani soldiers whose deaths were initially blamed on militants in the Taliban-infested tribal belt on the Afghan border, a commander said Tuesday.

Security officials at first said 14 soldiers were killed during fighting Monday in the Shindhand area of Khyber, part of Pakistan's tribal belt that Washington has branded a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.

But northwest military commander Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik told reporters on Tuesday that 13 soldiers died due to mortar fire called in by the commanding officer after his troops came under attack.

“When our soldiers came under fire, the commanding officer called mortar fire twice. The second mortar missed its target and hit our own soldiers,” Malik said in the northwestern capital of Peshawar.

“Two officers and 11 soldiers were martyred,” he said, adding that misfire was always a risk with mortars.

“There is a possibility of error in mortar fire when troops are themselves under fire,” he said. “Several militants were killed and arrested,” the general said, but gave no figures.

Khyber, home to Taliban and extremist group Lashkar-e-Islam led by local warlord Mangal Bagh, lies on the main NATO land supply route into Afghanistan, where foreign forces are battling to reverse a nine-year Taliban insurgency.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have been blamed for bomb attacks across Pakistan which have killed more than 4,000 people since July 2007.

US officials consider northwest Pakistan a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to regroup and launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.

Under US pressure, Pakistan has stepped up military operations against largely homegrown militants in much of the tribal belt, including Khyber.

But American officials would also like Pakistan to launch a major offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan, considered the ultimate fortress of Taliban groups fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan.

Washington says eliminating the threat is key to winning the war in Afghanistan, but Pakistan says its troops are too overstretched.

On Monday, Nato's civilian representative to Afghanistan said Pakistan was so preoccupied with its own fight against militancy that it could do little more to help Nato forces in Afghanistan.

“People sometimes say the Pakistanis must do more.... (but) actually they have lost an awful lot of soldiers fighting the groups that target them,” said Mark Sedwill. “They have their hands full.” – AFP