A senior Pakistani military officer said a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops on the border with Afghanistan last month was pre-planned, newspapers reported on Friday, in comments likely to fuel tensions with Washington.

Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, director general of military operations, also said Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally, would deploy an air defence system along the border to prevent such attacks, the newspapers said.

The newspapers said he made the remarks to a Senate committee on defence on Thursday. Military officials were not immediately available to confirm he had made the comments.