PESHAWAR, Aug 11: Two soldiers of the Pakistan Army were killed and a junior officer of a para-military force was wounded when fired at by the United States forces on the Pakistan-Afghan border at North Waziristan Agency on Monday, a senior government official said.

This is the first incident of its kind involving US forces firing at the Pakistani soldiers on the border since the US-led military campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

An official announcement said Pakistan “has lodged a strong protest with the US authorities over the incident.”

The official said: “The Pakistani forces were patrolling the Lawara picket when they were fired at by the US forces, leaving two soldiers of the Pakistan Army dead.”

The soldiers have been identified as sepoy Mohammad Yamin and sepoy Khayal Badshah of the 69 Baloch Regiment. The official said Lance Naik Amjad Hussain of Shawal Scouts was seriously wounded in the attack.

He was evacuated to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Miramshah for medical treatment.

He further said that three soldiers were reported missing but was unable to confirm whether they were regular army troops or jawans of the Shawal Scouts.

According to official accounts, the clash occurred at around 10.00am when soldiers of the 69 Baloch Regiment and Shawal Scouts were patrolling the Lawara picket on the Pakistan-Afghan border, established about four days ago in view of the clashes between the two countries.

The firing continued for over two hours, officials and local reporters said.

Lawara is situated at around three-and a-half kilometre drive to the west of Miramshah — agency headquarters of North Waziristan Agency, about 170kms to the southwest of Peshawar.

This is the second serious incident in a series of border clashes between the forces of the two countries in the last two months.

A jawan of Swat Scouts was killed when Afghan militia opened fire on Pakistani troops following a border dispute in the Mohmand tribal region last June. The clash had occurred in the wake of countrywide protests in Afghanistan over alleged intrusion of Pakistani forces into Afghanistan.

A technical committee of military officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States is presently probing the allegation.

A security official said Pakistan had mobilized its troops to beef up security on its side of the border.

He put the total strength of the US-backed Afghan forces on the other side of the border at 200 to 300 soldiers. “The situation is quite now but both sides have taken up positions,” the official said.

Local reporters, quoting eyewitnesses, said the clash was triggered by unprovoked firing from a helicopter of the US-led coalition forces on Pakistani positions.

The government official acknowledged the involvement of coalition forces in the attack but maintained that the incident was caused by, what he called, “friendly fire” from across the border.

“It was due to some misunderstanding. They probably mistook the Pakistani troops for Taliban/Al-Qaeda and opened fire. The two sides are now in contact with each other to sort out the matter,” he said.

Lawara borders Afghanistan’s Khost province that once served as a training ground for Al Qaeda and has seen a spate of guerilla attacks from suspected Taliban in recent times.

ISPR: Meanwhile, the Inter-Services Public Relations, a mouthpiece of the Pakistan Army, issued the following official account of the incident: