The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS’ TARGETS ISLAMIC STATE
U.S. drops powerful bomb on fighters in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military dropped the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal Thursday on a cave-and-tunnel complex that it said was used by Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan.
The behemoth bomb, officially called the massive ordnance air blast, or MOAB, is known as the “mother of all bombs.” It is 30 feet long, weighs nearly 11 tons and produces a devastating aboveground explosion that sends a mushroom cloud roiling high in the sky.
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, and has never been used in combat before.
Like the U.S. retaliatory missile strike in Syria last week, however, use of the monster munition in Afghanistan is more symbolic than tactical, because it is unlikely to change the course of America’s longest war.
President Donald Trump praised the bombing as a “very, very successful mission.” He indicated that he had given the Pentagon a free hand as part of his vow to step up the war on Islamic State.
“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 military said the massive bomb was dropped from the rear door of an MC-130 cargo plane as part of a U.S.-backed offensive on an Islamic State stronghold in Achin district in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The militants have gained strength in the area, which is close to Pakistan, and have been locked in a pounding ground battle with Afghan security forces backed by U.S. special operations advisers.
Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Maryland, was killed Saturday after coming under fire in eastern Nangarhar. He was the first American service member killed in combat this year in Afghanistan, and the 1,833rd since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
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, producing a lethal shock wave that can travel more than 1.5 miles.
The explosion was intended to send pulverizing pressure through the rocky labyrinth of tunnels, where Islamic State fighters were able to move without being detected by American spy planes, U.S. officials said.
“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The bomb was moved to Afghanistan before Trump took office, officials said, and Nicholson did not need specific presidential approval to use it, although the White House was briefed. The Pentagon has 8,400 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise Afghan forces; most rarely participate in direct combat.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said U.S. commanders “took all precautions necessary to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage.”
Speaking by phone from Achin, Sher Nabi, a commander with the Afghan Local Police, said the bomb landed about half a mile outside the town of Shogal, near the border with Pakistan.
Nabi said the bomb killed “many militants” and destroyed their weapons. There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties.
The massive bomb in some ways is a shift from recent Pentagon weapons systems, which use drones and missiles capable of hitting targets through an open window.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, now dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Va., said the bomb was meant to obliterate a wide area and intimidate the enemy.
“With a blast radius of a mile, this weapon wasn’t designed for an urban area,” he said. “It’s going to have physical effects on the enemy, of course, but it is also going to create psychological effects.”
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military policy research website, said the bomb is a “geewhiz weapon,” not a tactical one.
“You use a bomb like this to send a message,” he said.