‘Mother of all bombs’ hits Afghan rebels
KABUL: As many as 36 suspected Islamic State militants were killed in Afghanistan when the US dropped “the mother of all bombs”, one of the largest non-nuclear devices ever unleashed in combat, the Afghan defence ministry said yesterday.
Thursday’s strike came as US President Donald Trump dispatches his first high-level delegation to Kabul, amid uncertainty about his plans for the nearly 9 000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan.
The deaths have not been independently verified, but ministry spokesperson Dawlat Waziri said no civilians were harmed in the blast that targeted a network of caves and tunnels. The 9 797kg GBU-43 bomb, was dropped from an MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar bordering Pakistan, Pentagon spokesperson Adam Stump said on Thursday.
The device, also known as the “mother of all bombs”, is a GPS-guided munition that had never before been used in combat since its first test in 2003, when it produced a mushroom cloud visible from 32km away.
The bomb’s destructive power, equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, pales in comparison with the relatively small atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II, which had blasts equivalent to between 15 000 and 20 000 tons of TNT.
At a village situated about 5km from the remote, mountainous area where the bomb was dropped, witnesses said the ground shook, but homes and shops appeared to be unaffected.
The strike was part of a joint operation by Afghan and international troops, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s office said.
“Afghan and foreign troops closely co-ordinated this operation and were extra cautious to avoid any civilian casualties,” it said.
Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned the use of the weapon on Afghan soil. “This is not the war on terror, but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as a testing ground for new and dangerous weapons,” he said on Twitter.
The Taliban condemned the use of the bomb, saying in a statement, “Using this massive bomb cannot be justified and will leave a material and psychological impact on our people.”
The US has steadily intensified its air campaign against IS and Taliban militants in Afghanistan.