Nine Paras shot by British gunship after being mistaken for Taliban in 'friendly fire' disaster

The soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment were locked in a ferocious close-quarter combat with Taliban fighters and called in air support to save their patrol from being overrun.

The Apache helicopter from the Army Air Corps successfully attacked one enemy position with its powerful 30mm cannon, but in the confusion of battle then turned its fire on a British position close by, mistaking the Paras for the enemy.

Rescue: Injured Paras in Afghanistan are rushed to safety on a quad bike trailer

An investigation was under way today to understand how the so-called ‘blue-on-blue’ incident happened, despite strict procedures designed to help pilots identify friendly troops.

The Ministry of Defence said three men suffered life-threatening injuries at the scene and were flown to the main British base at Camp Bastion following the battle on Wednesday afternoon.

One man is in a critical condition and has been flown back to Britain, while two others are stable in a field hospital. Six soldiers have returned to duty. The families of all nine men have been informed.

The injured men were all from 2 Para, the unit which suffered five fatalities in fighting in Helmand Province last month.

Escape: Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion,The Parachute Regiment, take cover as they wait for a Chinook helicopter to land to evacuate six of those shot by a British Army Apache Helicopter

According to sources close to the regiment one of those wounded in Wednesday’s battle was a platoon commander who had just returned to Afghanistan after attending the funerals of two other Paras who were killed in another firefight last month.

Friendly fire from air support is a recognized risk for troops fighting in Helmand, where coalition strike jets and helicopters are frequently asked by desperate infantry on the ground to fire their weapons ‘danger close’ to their own positions, because the enemy are only yards away.

Military experts said technology used to prevent friendly fire incidents - codenamed 'identify friend or foe' - was virtually useless in close combat situations.

Wednesday's incident is believed to have happened when the paras were just 50metres from the Taliban fighters.

It occurred close to Forward Operating Base Gibraltar, near the hotbed town of Musa Qaleh in northern Helmand, after a routine patrol from C Company 2 Para was engaged by a ‘significant number’ of Taliban troops.

British commanders’ hopes that the Taliban had been so weakened by months of fighting that they would be unable to confront UK forces in conventional battles this summer have been cruelly dashed.

Mistake: An Apache helicopter like the gunship involved

Last month brought the worst casualty figures since British forces first deployed to Afghanistan in 2001 with 13 UK servicemen and women killed in the just 21 days, including Cpl Sarah Bryant, the first British female soldier to die in Afghanistan.

The total number of troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 is 110.

One Para source said: "All the lads have phoned their families and told them what happened.

‘Everything possible is done to try to ensure this sort of thing does not happen.

‘Unfortunately in the fog of war and with the closeness of the fighting out there these tragedies do occur. We are fortunate no-one was killed.’

An MOD spokesman said: ‘After successfully engaging one enemy position the Apache fired upon another position which the crew believed to be held by enemy forces.

‘However, in the confusion of a rapidly changing situation and in what is a challenging environment, it would appear that friendly forces were mistaken for the enemy and as a result three members of the patrol were seriously wounded and six more were classified as walking wounded.’