Afghans gave go-ahead for bomb strike

KABUL: The Afghan government said the massive bomb dropped by the US on an Islamic State (IS) tunnel complex in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province was deployed in co-ordination with the country’s government.

“It shook the entire valley, I have never heard a sound so loud in my entire life,” Qadratullah, a resident of Achin district, the stronghold of IS militants, said yesterday.

The GBU-43 bomb goes by the nickname MOAB for massive ordnance air blast bomb and is also known as the “mother of all bombs”.

The Afghan presidential palace said the bomb was dropped in co-ordination with the government, adding “the air strike was designed to sup- port the efforts of the ANSF and US Forces” conducting an operation in the area.

It was dropped on the tunnel complex in Achin from a US aircraft on Thursday “as part of ongoing efforts to defeat Isis in Afghanistan in 2017”, the Pentagon said in a news release.

US President Donald Trump indicated he gave the order to use the weapon.

“What I do is I authorise my military,” he said at the White House. “We have given them total authorisation and that’s what they’re doing and frankly that’s why they’ve been so successful lately.”

The bomb, weighing nearly 10 000kg, is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb the US possesses. – dpa