A COMBAT photographer captured the final moment of her life on film, snapping the mortar blast that killed her.

Spc. Hilda Clayton, a visual information specialist was attached to the 4th Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division on manoeuvres in Afghanistan in July 2013.

5 A combat photographer captured the final moments of her life on film in Afghanistan while her Afghan counterpart took the picture below Credit: U.S. Army Spc. Hilda Clayton

5 A US photographer and the Afghan she was training both snapped the seconds before their deaths Credit: U.S. Army Spc. Hilda Clayton

The 22-year-old was documenting a live-fire training exercise in Qaraghahi to as US troops worked to certify Afghan soldiers on mortar operations.

She was also training up a local combat photographer who was also snapping the scene.

As the pair clicked away behind their cameras a mortar exploded while still inside its launcher.

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Clayton and her Afghan counterpart captured the tragic moments just before they lost their own lives.

The three Afghan soldiers participating in the exercise were also killed in the exercise.

It marked the first death of a Army combat documentation in Afghanistan.

Clayton's family approved the release of the photos by the US Army, reports the Army Times.

5 Spc. Hilda Clayton's photos have just been released by the US Army following her death in 2013 Credit: US Army

5 The three Afghan soldiers participating in the exercise were also killed Credit: U.S. Army photo/Pvt. David Devich

5 As Clayton and her trainee were documenting the exercise a mortar unexpectedly detonated Credit: U.S. Army Spc. Hilda Clayton

The pictures from Iraq have come to light just two weeks after it was revealed the British Attorney General had launched a legal fight to prevent Tony Blair being hauled before a court over deaths in the country.

Jeremy Wright stepped in on behalf of the former Prime Minister after former chief of staff of the Iraq army General Abdul-Wahid Shannan ar-Ribat tried to prosecute him for the crime of “aggression”.

The attorney general says any case is “hopeless”, as “aggression” is not a crime in English law.

Blair hit the news over the weekend after announcing he would be prepared to return to front line politics in the wake of last year's Brexit referendum.