A former Australian SAS soldier who served in Afghanistan has been arrested and is expected to be charged with a war crime.

The man was arrested on Monday morning by Australian Federal Police officers in regional NSW and is expected to appear in Queanbeyan Local Court on Tuesday.

The AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) said the 41-year-old man will be charged with one count of war crime – murder, a punishment that carries a penalty of life imprisonment.

The man has been identified by the ABC and News Corp as former special forces soldier Oliver Schulz.

It will be alleged he murdered an Afghan man while deployed to Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force.

A joint statement by the AFP and OSI said they were working to investigate allegations of criminal offences under Australian law related to breaches of the Laws of Armed Conflict by Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.