Last night the families of the three soldiers killed by a US bomb dropped by an F15 aircraft last week in Afghanistan called on the Americans to release all available evidence on the latest friendly-fire incident for the inquest.

Private Robert “Fozzy” Foster, 19, was killed alongside Aaron McClure, 19, and John Thrumble, 21, all from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, when a 500lb bomb was dropped from a US F15 aircraft.

Steve Foster, Private Foster’s uncle, told The Times last night: “As a family we want to find out what happened to Robert – why he was killed by an allied bomb. We can not see why the American pilot and those who provided the intelligence or gave commands from the ground cannot give evidence at the inquest. We need to know what happened so it can be prevented from happening again.

“We need to know if the pilot was feeling hyped up, if he was calm, what he had been told before the operation, what happened on the day. Why is it that our closest ally is refusing to provide the evidence that might explain what happened to Robert? I am sure that if an American was killed in a British attack then those involved would give evidence.