US bombs dropped on Afghanistan hit new high in April

US warplanes dropped more weapons on Afghanistan in April than in any other single month since 2012, according to new statistics, as military officials press US President Donald Trump to send thousands more troops to the country.

The escalation in the use of American air power was partly due to an effort by US commanders to wipe out a nascent Islamic State presence before the group can establish more of a foothold in the country, a military spokesman said.

The US Air Force unleashed 460 bombs, missiles or other ordnance last month in Afghanistan, more than double the 203 weapons dropped in March and more than seven times the quantity deployed in April last year.

Trump has yet to announce a decision on proposals from his top military advisers calling for the US and its coalition allies to send 3,000 to 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Currently, about 8,400 US and 6,500 coalition troops are deployed, mostly to train and support Afghan forces.

The additional troops could also be used to ramp up air support, which has often been seen as decisive in preventing the total collapse of some Afghan defensive positions.

The last time more weapons were dropped in a single month was August 2012, when nearly 80,000 US troops were battling the Taliban and two years before former president Barack Obama declared an end to the combat mission in Afghanistan.

Since then, however, Afghan armed forces have struggled to hold back a revived Taliban insurgency. Islamic State’s small domestic affiliate has been active since 2015.

Last month, the US military dropped one of its largest conventional weapons ever used in combat, a 21,600-lb (9,797 kg) GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, on suspected Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan.

The air force data, however, show that while unusually large, that bomb was only part of a greatly expanded air campaign in the country.

As of the end of April, air force warplanes had released 917 weapons, compared with 1,337 in all of 2016, and 947 in 2015, the first year of the “noncombat” mission in Afghanistan.