Video footage of the shocking mistake has surfaced online. It shows the moment the bomb hit the ground about 15 metres away from the soldiers, who had called in an air strike against Taliban forces in Paktika Province.

“Honestly, we had dropped so many bombs up to that point that the thought never even crossed my mind that this could even happen, especially with all the checks put into place,”the man who shot the footage has told Funker 530.

After spotting Taliban fighters on a distant ridge, the soldiers called in an air strike. But apparently the aircraft mistook the Americans’ position for one occupied by the enemy, and dropped a bomb there by mistake.

“About a half-second before impact you could hear the bomb screaming in like I hadn’t ever heard before, and I definitely knew at that point something was off,” the cameraman said.

“We heard weapons free, they told us to get small, and I replied with “Yeah, I get small” sarcastically, and then it landed about 15 metres behind us.”

There were no friendly fire casualties, but one outpost structure was destroyed and another was shredded by shrapnel.

“After the initial realisation that it had hit behind us, we were so scatterbrained trying to figure out what happened. It hit so close to the guys in the tower it actually knocked the fill out of radios.

“Luckily our First Sergeant (had) called up and put everyone on stand to, inadvertently saving the lives of at least three soldiers who would have been in the bay that had shrapnel sent through every inch of it.”

This isn’t the first time an air strike has accidentally targeted friendly soldiers. Three British troops were killed by a US air strike in 2007, and several incidents have led to the deaths of Afghan soldiers.