Massive US bomb kills 36 militants, officials say

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 morning against an Islamic State 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.

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 militant 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 striking a mountainside overlooking a river valley with a giant blast that overwhelms the landscape and sent up a massive column of black smoke. Agricultural terraces are visible in the footage, but no population centers.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that the bomb destroyed several IS caves and ammunition caches.

Gen. Daulat Waziri, a ministry spokesman, said 36 IS 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’s Aamaq news agency denied that any of its fighters were killed or wounded, citing a source within the group.