One of the largest USA military aircrafts, stationed in Afghanistan, dropped the 21,600 pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB) that is also called the "Mother of All Bombs" on tunnels believed to be used by the ISIS's Khorasan module.
MOAB - that was dropped by the USA on Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Afghanistan on April 13 weighs 21,700 pounds, is GPS-guided and is ideal for destroying cave complexes like those ISIS jihadists hide out in on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Sher Nabi, a commander with the Afghan Local Police, told the LA Times that the bomb landed about a half mile outside the town of Shogal, near the border with Pakistan and that "many militants" were killed.
"This was the right weapon against the right target".
According to the Ministry of Defense statement, there were no civilian casualties and several ISIS ammunition caches and caves were destroyed. "ISIS, by comparison, is a sideshow", Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington told AFP, using an alternative acronym for IS.
Nicholson said the USA conducted "persistent surveillance over the area before during and after the operation" and that there had been no evidence of civilians hit in the strike.
"They were Arabs, Pakistanis, Chinese and local insurgents coming to buy from shops in the bazaar", resident Raz Mohammad said. "Precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties with this airstrike".
But former president Hamid Karzai condemned the use of the weapon on Afghan soil.
On Friday morning, NBC broke the news that the Trump administration is prepared to attack North Korea if "officials become convinced" dictator Kim Jong-un has plans to test another nuclear weapon.
Penguins edge Jackets for lead
Hockey fans can be similarly dogged with their craniofacial injuries, especially when it's Stanley Cup playoff time. For nearly the entirety of the first period, the Blue Jackets looked like easily the better of the two teams.
American and Afghan forces have been battling the Taliban insurgency for more than 15 years.
"Let me be clear - we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our Afghan comrades to destroy ISIS-K in 2017", he said, referring to the terror group's regional branch. "It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield, and it has enabled us to resume our offensive operations".
He once said the invasion of Afghanistan was a mistake, though he later walked back that statement, saying that he "always supported" United States involvement in the country.
Residents in Afghan villages kilometers away from the target area felt Thursday's powerful strike.
Such aircraft can carry as much as 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg) of bombs, missiles, or other weapons on each mission.
The U.S. attack on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border killed at least four IS group leaders, Khogyani said.
In March, U.S. forces conducted 79 "counterterror strikes" against Islamic State in Nangarhar, killing as many as 200 militants, according to the U.S. military command in Kabul.
The bomb - known officially as a GBU-43B but nicknamed the "mother of all bombs" - unleashes 11 tons of explosives.
Comments