Combat photographer captures final moments of fatal mortar blast

FOX 32 NEWS - The Army released the final images captured by a combat photographer before she was killed during a live-fire training exercise in Qaraghahi, Afghanistan.

Specialist Hilda Clayton was taking pictures of three Afghan soldiers during a 2013 mortar operation exercise when the mortar tube accidentally exploded, killing Clayton, all of the soldiers and a fellow Afghan war photographer who she was training at the time.

Clayton's death marked the first death of an Army combat documentation in Afghanistan, according to the Daily Mail.

The 22-year-old from Augusta, Ga., was a member of the 55th Signal Company, a storied combat camera unit based in Fort Meade, Md. The unit named its annual competition in her memory, according to Stars and Stripes.

Clayton's family approved the release of the disturbing photos, according to the report.