U.S. Drops ‘Mother of All Bombs’ on Afghanistan
U.S. Army Special Forces Soldier with Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force. Credit: Wikipedia.
The most powerful non-nuclear bomb was dropped on ISIS-controlled territory in Afghanistan by the United States Thursday night, April 13.
Afghan officials reported that 36 members of the terrorist group were killed from the “mother of all bombs” or the “MOAB.”
The acronym “MOAB” is commonly associated with the phrase “mother of all bombs”, but the phrase is a description of the actual bomb, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast, where the acronym originates.
According to an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, three underground tunnels, armory, and weapons were destroyed in the bombing.
President Trump responded confidently.
“We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done the job, as usual. We have given them total authorization, and that’s what they’re doing,” said Trump according to Military Times.
This was the second attack in one week on the Middle East, the first being a surprise missile strike on a Syrian airbase.
CNN reported in an April 14th article, “U.S. and Afghan forces had been unable to advance because ISIS — which has expanded into Afghanistan in recent years — had mined the area with explosives.”
The site also stated that locals told CNN over 3,000 families had left the area over the past year since ISIS arrived and presented itself as a threat.
The president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, was pleased with the strike.
“[The strike was] designed to support the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and U.S. forces…conducting clearance operations in the region. Precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties with this air strike,” he said via Twitter.
However, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai disagreed.
Karzai tweeted, “This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons.”
CNN reported that Mark Toner, the spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the U.S. is “working with the government of Afghanistan and our partners in the region in order to deny any terrorist organization—that includes al Qaeda as well—a safe haven or any kind of material support on the ground.”
