The United States has dropped its largest non-nuclear weapon after it targeted ISIS a network of caves and tunnels in eastern Afghanistan.
US forces used a GPS-guided GBU-43 bomb, which is 30 feet long and weighs a staggering 21,600 pounds.
It is known as the ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ – a play on ‘MOAB,’ an acronym that stands for ‘Massive Ordnance Air Burst.’
A crater left by the blast is believed to be more than 300 meters wide after it exploded six feet above the ground. Anyone at the blast site was vaporized.
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he was ‘very, very proud’ and called the operation ‘really another successful job. We’re very, very proud of our military.’
Spokesman for the US Department of Defence Adam Stump said it was the first ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43. It contains 11 tons of explosives.
The US Air Force calls it the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) and has also been called the “mother of all bombs” based on the acronym.
The US military headquarters in Kabul said in a statement that the bomb was dropped at 7:32pm local time on a tunnel complex in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of the IS group has been operating.
The target was close to the Pakistani border.
When it was developed in the early 2000s, the Pentagon did a formal review of legal justification for its combat use.
Mr Stump said the bomb was dropped from a US Air Force MC-130 transport, which he said had been brought to Afghanistan “some time ago” for potential use.
Army General John W Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said the strike was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the Achin area “while maximising the destruction” of Isis fighters and facilities.
He said ISIS has been using improvised explosive devices, bunkers and tunnels to strengthen its defences.
“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K,” he added, using the US military’s acronym for the Isis affiliate.
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