U.S. hit IS with largest non-nuclear bomb
Trump calls Afghanistan attack ‘very, very successful mission’; deaths, damage remain unclear
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said.
The behemoth bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon (hence its moniker) unleashes 11 tons of explosives. It is the most powerful bomb the U.S. military has used since dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. When it was developed in the early 2000s, the Pentagon did a formal review of legal justification for its combat use.
The Pentagon said it had no early estimate of deaths or damage caused by its attack, which President Donald Trump called a “very, very successful mission.” Sher Nabi, a local commander with the Afghan Local Police, said the bomb killed “many militants” and destroyed their weapons.
Mr. Trump indicated that he had given the Pentagon a free hand as part of his vow to step up the war on IS.
“We have given them total authorization, and that’s what they’re doing and frankly that’s why they’ve been so successful lately,” he told reporters at the White House.
“If you look at what’s happened over the last eight weeks and compare that really to what’s happened over the past eight years, you’ll see there’s a tremendous difference, tremendous difference,” he said.
The U.S. military headquarters
in Kabul said in a statement that the bomb was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Achin district of Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of IS has been operating and gaining strength. The target was close to the Pakistani border.
Officials at the Afghan Defense Ministry said they were first alerted to Thursday’s bomb attack through media reports.
The U.S. estimates 600 to 800 IS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated heavily on combatting them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban. Just last week a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Md., was killed in action in Nangarhar.
The MOAB is a custommade Air Force weapon that has been in the arsenal for more than a decade but never used on the battlefield, although it was available throughout the Iraq war. It is designed to hit softer targets such as surface facilities, tunnel entrances and troop concentrations. It is pushed out the rear of the launching aircraft, guided to its target by GPS and slowed by a parachute.
A separate non-nuclear weapon known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, which is larger in its physical dimensions but carries a smaller load of conventional explosives, is designed to take out deeply buried targets like reinforced bunkers. The MOP has never been used in combat.
During the years of intense fighting in Afghanistan, a handful of similar bombs were used by the United States to destroy caves believed to be used by forces of the Taliban and alQaida, as well as to frighten troops dug into trenches who were not immediately killed by the weapon. That the U.S. is again using this type of ordnance reflects the changing nature of the foe in Afghanistan, and the fact that IS, like the Taliban and al-Qaida, is now also using caves and tunnels.
In its 2003 review of the legality of using the MOAB, the Pentagon concluded that it could not be called an indiscriminate killer under the Law of Armed Conflict.
“Although the MOAB weapon leaves a large footprint, it is discriminate and requires a deliberate launching toward the target,” the review said. It added: “It is expected that the weapon will have a substantial psychological effect on those who witness its use.”
The giant bomb initially falls with a parachute, but a GPS guidance system then guides the bomb to its target. The munition detonates before it hits the ground, sending a lethal shock wave more than a mile-and-a-half away and forcing pulverizing pressure through any rocky labyrinth of tunnels.
Army Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a written statement that the strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. forces conducting clearing operations in the Achin area “while maximizing the destruction” of IS fighters and facilities. He said IS has been using improvised explosive devices, bunkers and tunnels to strengthen its defenses.
Ismail Shinwari, the governor of Achin district, said the U.S. attack was carried out in a remote mountainous area with no civilian homes nearby and that there had been no reports of injured civilians. He said there has been heavy fighting in the area in recent weeks between Afghan forces and IS extremists.