The two soldiers were killed along the porous border

ISLAMABAD, August 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)  - Pakistan Tuesday, August 12, protested to Washington over mistakenly killing of its two soldiers by U.S. forces along the border with Afghanistan Monday.

"A strong protest has been lodged with the U.S. authorities about the incident," Pakistan's Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

U.S. military planes, called in by ground troops patrolling the border in southeastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, opened fire on what were believed to be attackers fleeing towards the border.

The U.S. military said its ground troops had been fired on during their patrol and the assailants fled towards Pakistan.

Attacks by the Ousted Taliban have largely been concentrated along Afghanistan's southern and eastern borders with Pakistan, triggering repeated allegations from Afghan officials that fighters were being harbored or assisted by Pakistan.

But Islamabad vehemently denied the allegations.

A spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command said it was unclear whether the Pakistanis were killed in the air attack or in exchanges of fire on the ground between U.S. forces and the fleeing assailants.

"We don't know if it was the result of the close air support or if it was in a firefight between the bad guys that were originally identified and the coalition forces," Commander Dan Gage was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

Pakistan's military said U.S. forces had "mistakenly" fired on the Pakistani patrol near Imal Khel post in North Waziristan tribal district.

"The Pakistani and U.S. troops were on their respective sides," said Sultan.

The deaths were the first of Pakistani soldiers under U.S. fire in the 20-month-old "war on terror", which was launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and in which Islamabad and Washington are critical allies.

The remote, deeply conservative North Waziristan region was a popular escape route for al-Qaeda fighters fleeing the U.S.-led military assault in Afghanistan that followed the attacks and ousted the Taliban regime, allies of al-Qaeda.

Pakistani human rights officials have said hundreds of al-Qaeda fugitives took refuge in North Waziristan and neighboring South Waziristan in late 2001 and 2002.

Eleven Pakistani troops hunting the extremists were killed by a band of al-Qaeda suspects in South Waziristan in June 2002.

Afghan and U.S military officials believe rebels loyal to the ousted Taliban militia, al-Qaeda and renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are operating a guerrilla war against Western and Afghan targets out of the rugged Pakistani-Afghan borderlands.

Pakistani newspapers quoting witnesses in the Pakistani border town of Miranshah said the firefight was triggered by a rocket attack against the US troops.

"The infuriated American troops, while considering the attack was from Pakistan's side, called helicopters that targeted Pakistani posts on the Pakistan-Afghan border," the News daily said.

It quoted local residents saying the Pakistani troops fought back and fighting continued for one hour.

Residents said tensions were high along the border but Sultan said the situation was quiet.

"Things are normal now," he said.

Simmering border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan most recently erupted in July after Pakistan deployed troops for the first time in Mohmand tribal district, north of Waziristan, to a disputed part of the frontier.

The incident would be probed at a meeting of a commission of Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. officials formed to discuss the porous, ill-defined border and the hunt for fugitive extremists in the area on Tuesday, Sultan said.

"Whatever happens at the border comes up for discussion," he added.