No civilians hurt by massive bomb
KABUL — A strike by the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military killed 36 Islamic State group militants and left no civilian casualties, hitting a tunnel complex in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials said Friday.
The massive bomb terrified villagers 30 km away across the border in Pakistan with a blast they described as earsplitting.
American and Afghan forces have been battling the Taliban insurgency for more than 15 years. But the U.S. military brought out the biggest conventional bomb in its arsenal for the first time to hit Islamic State, which has a far smaller, but growing presence in Afghanistan — an apparent reflection of U.S. President Donald Trump’s vows for a more no-holds-barred campaign against the group.
The strike was carried out against an Islamic State tunnel complex carved in the mountains that Afghan forces have tried repeatedly in past weeks to assault in fierce fighting in recent weeks in Nangarhar province, Afghan officials said. The Afghan Ministry of Defence said in a statement that several Islamic State caves and ammunition caches were destroyed by the bomb.
“This is the right weapon for the right target,” U.S. Gen. John W. Nicholson, NATO commander in Afghanistan, said at a news conference.
The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 10 tonnes of explosives. Footage put out by the Pentagon showed the bomb slamming into a mountainside overlooking a river valley, causing a giant blast that overwhelms the landscape then sends up a massive column of black smoke.
Gen. Daulat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghanistan Ministry of Defence, said 36 Islamic State fighters were killed, and that the death toll could likely rise. He said Afghan forces were at the tunnel complex assessing the damage. He said the bombing was necessary because the complex was extremely hard to penetrate, with some tunnels as deep as 40 metres.
“It was a strong position and four times we had operations (attacking the site) and it was not possible to advance,” he said, adding that the road leading to the complex “was full of mines.”