“Glass was flying, I saw the guys slumped over,” the staff sergeant said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. Training had taught the team to accelerate through ambushes to escape the kill zone. “I waited a few seconds, hoping the guys in front could push through, but nothing happened.”

In the video, the Jordanian soldier who removed the roadblocks runs for cover, and the staff sergeant fires three shots toward the gate with a 9-mm pistol before he and the soldier in the truck behind him, Sergeant Moriarty, seek cover.

A number of trucks pass, apparently unaware of the ambush. The video shows a pickup drive by carrying two camels that crane their necks at the crack of gunfire.

The video has no sound, but the staff sergeant said the gunfire that followed was punctuated with screaming from both sides, with the gunman telling them to put their hands up, and the Americans yelling back that they are friends. To try to appease the gunman, they pop their heads up, raising their arms without their guns to indicate a cease-fire, then duck quickly as explosions of dust show bullets hitting the barricade inches from their heads.

“I put my gun down, raised my hands a little and he took a shot at me,” the staff sergeant said. “That is when we decided this probably was not an accident.”