Afghanistan: U.S. bomb killed 36 ISIS militants
‘Earsplitting blast’ of MOAB terrified people miles away
KABUL, Afghanistan — The biggest non-nuclear bomb ever dropped in combat by the U.S. military killed 36 militants in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Friday, and villagers in the remote, mountainous area described being terrified by the “earsplitting blast.”
The strike using the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, was carried out Thursday against an Islamic State group tunnel complex carved in the mountains that Afghan forces have tried to assault repeatedly in recent weeks in fierce fighting in Nangarhar province, Afghan officials said.
“This was the right weapon against the right target,” Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, told reporters Friday. “We have U.S. forces at the site and we see no evidence of civilian casualties nor have there been reports.”
Nicholson added that the strike “demonstrates the commitment of Afghan forces, Afghan government and U.S. partners to defeat” Islamic State, which is also called ISIS.
Nicholson had standing authority to use the bomb before Trump took office, Pentagon officials said Friday.
The Air Force estimates each MOAB costs about $170,000 to build.
U.S. 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 the Islamic State, which has a far smaller but growing presence in Afghanistan. That apparently reflects President Donald Trump’s vow for a more aggressive campaign against the group.
The bomb — known officially as a GBU-43B but nicknamed the “mother of all bombs” — unleashes 11 tons of explosives. Pentagon video showed the bomb exploding over a mountainside overlooking a river valley with a giant blast that overwhelms the landscape and sent up a massive column of black smoke.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that the bomb destroyed several ISIS caves and ammunition caches.
Gen. Daulat Waziri, a ministry spokesman, said 36 ISIS fighters were killed, and that the death toll could likely rise. He said Afghan forces were at the tunnel complex assessing the damage.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq news agency denied that any of its fighters were killed or wounded, citing a source within the group.
Waziri said the bombing was necessary because the complex was difficult to penetrate, with some tunnels as deep as 130 feet.
He called it a “strong position,” with troops attacking it four times without advancing, adding that the complex “was full of mines.”
The office of President Ashraf Ghani said there was “close coordination” between the U.S. military and the Afghan government over the operation, and they were careful to prevent any civilian casualties.
But the massive blast terrified villagers 20 miles away across the border in Pakistan.
Pakistani villagers living near the frontier said the explosion was so loud they thought a bomb had been dropped in their village by U.S. warplanes targeting militants in Pakistan.
“I was sleeping when we heard a loud explosion. It was an earsplitting blast,” said Shah Wali, 46, who lives in the village of Goor Gari, 9 miles from the border with Nangarhar. “I jumped from my bed and came out of my home to see what has gone wrong in our village.”
Dozens of other villagers also came out of their homes, Wali said. He later went near the border, where he met with other residents. He said he could see smoke in the sky.
“The whole house was shaking,” said Mufti Khan of Achin district in Nangarhar. “When I came out of my house, I saw a large fire and the whole area was burning.”
Another Achin resident, Mohammad Hakim, approved of the strike.
“We are very happy, and these kinds of bombs should be used in future as well, so Daesh is rooted out from here,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
“They killed our women, youths and elders, sitting them on mines,” Hakim added. “We also ask the Kabul government to use even stronger weapons against them.”
The U.S. estimates between 600 and 800 Islamic State fighters are in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar.
Trump called Thursday’s operation a “very, very successful mission.”