THE ‘MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS’
U.S. drops 10-tonne payload on ISIL
U.S. President Donald Trump sent a clear message to the world by dropping the largest non-nuclear bomb the U.S. has ever used in combat, a device known as the “mother of all bombs,” on ISIL forces in Afghanistan.
Officially known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, the huge 10-tonne payload was targeted at a complex of caves and tunnels the terrorist group used in the east of the country.
The show of force was a signal to U.S. enemies including Syria, North Korea and Iran that the White House is prepared to take actions from which previous administrations refrained.
A MOAB was first tested in 2003, days before the start of the Iraq war, but it was never used by either President George W. Bush or President Barack Obama.
Its use came as Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, in defiance of all evidence, accused the U.S. of “100 per cent fabricating” last week’s chemical attack in his country. In an interview he said: “Were the children dead at all?”
Trump said: “We are so proud of our military. It was another successful event.”
Asked if he had authorized the use of the bomb, Trump said: “Everybody knows exactly what happened, and what I do is I authorize my military.”
The MOAB, also known as the GBU-43B, was dropped from a U.S. Air Force MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, at 7.32 p.m. local time. The U.S. military said it did everything possible to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage. A damage assessment was being carried out.
The U.S. estimates 600 to 800 ISIL fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated heavily on combating them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban.
Just last week a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Maryland, was killed in action in Nangarhar.
The MOAB is designed to hit softer targets such as surface facilities, tunnel entrances and troop concentrations. It is pushed out the rear of the launching aircraft, guided to its target by GPS and slowed by a parachute.
A separate non-nuclear weapon known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, which is larger in its physical dimensions but carries a smaller load of conventional explosives, is designed to take out deeply buried targets like reinforced bunkers. The MOP has never been used in combat.
In its 2003 review of the legality of using the MOAB, the Pentagon concluded that it could not be called an indiscriminate killer under the Law of Armed Conflict.
“Although the MOAB weapon leaves a large footprint, it is discriminate and requires a deliberate launching toward the target,” the review said, adding: “It is expected that the weapon will have a substantial psychological effect on those who witness its use.”
Army Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a written statement the strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. forces conducting clearing operations in the Achin area “while maximizing the destruction” of ISIL fighters and facilities. He said ISIL 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 U.S. military’s acronym for the ISIL affiliate.
Ismail Shinwari, the governor of Achin district, said the U.S. attack was carried out in a remote mountainous area with no civilian homes nearby and there had been no reports of injured civilians. He said there has been heavy fighting in the area in recent weeks between Afghan forces and ISIL militants.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said ISIL fighters used the tunnels and caves in Achin to manoeuvre freely.
“The United States takes the fight against ISIL very seriously and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space, which we did,” Spicer said.