The blast tore through a vehicle in the Wazirdand area of Khyber, the infamous mountain district that straddles a major supply line for NATO troops in Afghanistan and is a hotbed of Taliban-linked militants.

Three other vehicles were heavily damaged by shrapnel. The shoes and slippers of victims lay scattered across the blood-spattered road, an AFP reporter witnessed.

"The death toll has risen to 18. Eleven are tribal policemen and seven are civilians," Shafeerullah Wazir, the administration chief of Khyber, told AFP.

Rehan Gul Khattak, a local official, also gave a death toll of 18.

Wazirdand is a small town located near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on the edge of the tribal belt, which lies outside direct government control and has been branded by US officials the "headquarters" of Al-Qaeda.

Tribal police, more lightly equipped than army soldiers, are frequently targetted by Taliban militants while travelling in exposed vehicles.

Separately, a Pakistani military helicopter crashed in Khyber while operating against militants, officials said.

The fate of the two people on board was not immediately clear.

"It was a Cobra helicopter. It crashed during an operation against suspected militant hideouts in the area," Wazir told AFP by telephone.

"We are trying to get details about the cause of the accident and fate of the pilots," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

Security officials said that a senior army official leading a rescue team to the helicopter crash site had been killed when a group of Taliban militants fired at them.

"A brigadier was martyred and two other officers were wounded in firing by militants during the rescue effort," a senior security official told AFP.

Separately, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group for the Taliban in Pakistan, continued to deny the death of leader Hakimullah Mehsud, but held off releasing another message proving he was alive, after an audio recording last month.

US officials increasingly believe Mehsud died after a US missile attack last month, part of a covert American drone campaign against Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

"Hakimullah Mehsud is safe and alive. The government and our enemies are waging a propaganda campaign," TTP spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"Our shura (leadership) has decided not to release his video immediately. They don't want the government to locate his whereabouts. We want to keep his presence a secret. We will release a video when we consider it necessary."

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who has been criticised for making incorrect statements about the Taliban in the past, again confirmed the existence of reports that Mehsud and the TTP's chief trainer of suicide bombers was dead.

"Hakimullah Mehsud has met his fate. There are similar reports about Qari Hussain also. Our agencies are investigating," Malik told reporters in Peshawar, reiterating long-held Pakistani positions.

"There are reports from credible sources, but I cannot confirm," the minister added.

The TTP has been behind a dramatic increase in bloodshed since Hakimullah Mehsud assumed the leadership after founder Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile attack last August.

Killing Hakimullah Mehsud would be a coup for the United States, which stepped up its drone campaign after the warlord appeared in a video last month with an Al-Qaeda operative.

Analysts have warned that even if Mehsud's death is confirmed, his demise could magnify the dangers should Al-Qaeda try to exploit a leadership vacuum.

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