KABUL // The largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat was deployed for “purely tactical” reasons, said the US army general who oversaw the operation.
The massive bomb — officially known as a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb or Moab but nicknamed the “mother of all bombs” — was dropped on a cave and tunnel complex used by ISIL in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan officials said it killed 36 ISIL extremists and no civilians.
Gen Nicholson, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, dismissed speculation that the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or Moab, — which had never been used in combat before — was meant to send a message to America’s other enemies — most notably Iran and North Korea. ““This is the right weapon for the right target,” he said. “The enemy had created bunkers, tunnels and extensive minefields, and this weapon was used to reduce those obstacles so that we could continue our offensive in southern Nangarhar.”
The Afghan Ministry of Defense said in a statement that several ISIL caves and ammunition caches were destroyed by the bomb.
The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani threw his support behind the bombing, emphasising the Americans had worked closely with his government to prevent any civilian casualties.
But Omar Zakhilwal, the Afghan envoy to Pakistan, called the strike “reprehensible” and “counterproductive”.
“If big bombs were the solution we would be the most secure place on earth today,” he tweeted.
And former president Hamid Karzai accused the American military of using his country as a weapons testing ground.
Analysts in the US also began to question whether using the biggest conventional weapon in America’s arsenal was overkill. “The Trump administration made a lot of noise with this bomb, but the general state of play on the ground remains the same,” said Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington. “The Taliban continues to wage a formidable and ferocious insurgency. ISIL, by comparison, is a sideshow. Still, from a strategic standpoint, there is an unsettling takeaway here. The US pulled off a huge shock and awe mission against an enemy that isn’t even the top threat to the US in Afghanistan. The Taliban continues to sit pretty.”
The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, unleashes 11 tons of explosives and detonates in the air, about 1.8 metres above the ground. Footage put out by the Pentagon showed the bomb slamming into a mountainside overlooking a river valley, causing a giant blast and sending up a vast column of black smoke.
The Amaq news agency, which is affiliated to ISIL, denied any militants were killed or wounded.
But Gen. Daulat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense, said the death toll of 36 was likely to rise once Afghan forces had finished assessing the damage. The bombing was necessary because the underground complex was extremely hard to penetrate, with some tunnels as deep as 40 meters and the roads leading to them were heavily mined.
“It was a strong position and four times we had operations (attacking the site) and it was not possible to advance,” he said.
Pakistani villagers living near the Afghan border said the explosion was so loud they thought a bomb had been dropped in their village by US warplanes targeting terrorists in Pakistan.
The noise sent dozens of running outside as the blast shook their homes. But there was widespread approval of the bombing.
Achin resident, Mohammad Hakim, said, “We are very happy and these kinds of bombs should be used in future as well, so Daesh is rooted out from here. They killed our women, youths and elders, sitting them on mines. We also ask the Kabul government to use even stronger weapons against them.”
Fellow Achin district resident Hakim Khan, 50, said, “I want a hundred times more bombings on this group.”
The US estimates 600 to 800 IS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The US has concentrated heavily on combating them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban. President Donald Trump called Thursday’s operation a “very, very successful mission.”
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* Associated Press