The most powerful nation in the world is continuing its counter-terrorism efforts, recently is the hitting of most powerful weapon in Afghanistan targetting the international terrorist group Islamic State also known as ISIS.
President Donald Trump has not yet over on its aggresive move against terrorist groups, in fact the Pentagon says US forces in Afghanistan dropped the military’s largest non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan.
GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, a powerful weapon recently used to combat the ISIS. This is what a Pentagon spokesman said it even described the move as the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43, which he said contains 11 tons of explosives.
The US Air Force calls it the Massive Ordinance Air Blast bomb. Based on the acronym, it has been nicknamed the “Mother Of All Bombs.”
President Trump called the mission “very, very successful.”
The huge bomb, delivered via an MC-130 transport plane, has a blast yield equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, and the weapon was originally designed as much to intimidate foes as to clear broad areas.
“The GBU-43/B is the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat,” Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder said.
Meanwhile, Achin District Governor Esmail Shinwari said the bomb landed in the Momand Dara area.
“The explosion was the biggest I have ever seen. Towering flames engulfed the area,” Shinwari told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We don’t know anything about the casualties so far, but since it is a Daesh (IS) stronghold we think a lot of Daesh fighters may have been killed.”
In an email report to AFP, US Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for US Forces Afghanistan, said that a bomb damage assessment was being carried out.
As to the possibility of civilian casualties from such a huge weapon, Salvin said: “Friendly forces scouted the area and noted the lack of civilian presence. The target was chosen to ensure the maximum effect against (IS) while preventing civilian casualties.”
General John Nicholson, who spearheads US Forces Afghanistan, described the weapon as the “right munition” to reduce IS obstacles and maintain the momentum against jihadists in the region.
According to White House spokesman Sean Spicer, the strike hit a system of tunnels and caves that IS fighters had used to “move around freely, making it easier for them to target US military advisers and Afghan forces” nearby.
“We must deny them operational space, which we did,” Spicer added.
For Afghan government side, their government was aware over the US plan to bomb the IS tunnel complex, presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi confirmed.
“Heavy casualties have been inflicted on the enemy,” Murtazawi said on Facebook, ruling out the possibility of civilian casualties.
It can be remembered that IS, notorious for its reign of terror in Syria and Iraq, has been making inroads into Afghanistan in recent years. It has attracted disaffected members of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban as well as Uzbek Islamists.
As of now, The Guardian said to its report that about 36 ISIS are dead due to the bomb attack executed by the US Air Force.
Meanwhile, the US Air Force said that the last time the MOAB was tested in 2003, a huge mushroom cloud could be seen from 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.
Despite its massive power, the MOAB still pales in comparison to a nuclear weapon.
Even the smallest of the US military’s atomic arsenal, the B-61 at its minimum configuration, has an explosive yield roughly 30 times that of the MOAB.
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