"Sorry: We were hoaxed," the newspaper said. "We absolutely believed they were what we were told they were, otherwise we would never have printed them."

The apology comes after the editor Piers Morgan was sacked over the issue.

The Queen's Lancashire Regiment - whose soldiers were accused of being in the pictures - has accepted the apology.

"It is a great pity it has taken so long and that so much damage has been done in the meantime," said a regiment spokesman.