The US military on Thursday dropped a 9,525 kg massive non-nuclear GBU-43 bomb in Afghanistan targeting a series of caves used by the ISIS.
The bomb is officially called the GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast, but unofficially goes by "The Mother of All Bombs".
"Let me be clear - we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our Afghan comrades to destroy ISIS K in 2017", General John Nicholson, the U.S. Commander for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission in Afghanistan said, referring to ISIS' regional branch, noted CNN.
Some residents in areas of Achin recently liberated from Islamic State occupation welcomed Thursday's strike, which hit headlines around the world and has been widely interpreted as a deliberate show of strength by U.S. President Donald Trump.
"I thought there was a bombing just outside my home", he said.
"Using this massive bomb can not be justified and will leave a material and psychological impact on our people", the armed group said in a statement.
"In regard to timing, it's when we encountered this target on the battlefield", Nicholson said.
"We have [an] incredible military".
Achin is separated from Pakistan by a range of high mountains, one of the areas where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters fled when the United States first intervened in the country in late 2001.
India, Bangladesh ink 22 agreements
On Teesta pact, she said, "Teesta agreement remains a work in progress.We have not reached a closure on it". Md Abdul Rauf, a Bangladesh Railway Official said, "The train will service passengers of both countries".
The U.S. estimates 600 to 800 IS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar.
The US commander in Afghanistan said the MOAB bomb, dropped on an area to the east of the country known to be populated by Isis-affiliated militants, had "achieved its intended purpose".
The U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said in a statement that the bomb was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time Thursday. He said he could see smoke in the sky.
"Precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties with this air strike", Ghani said. Reports are that Osama Bin Laden used these tunnels as well. "Why does the U.S not use an 11 ton bomb on Daesh's main strongholds", said Siyal Mohammad, another Kabul resident.
American and Afghan forces have been battling the Taliban insurgency for more than 15 years. That's around 10 million people - more than the population ISIS controlled in Syria and Iraq at the height of its power during the summer of 2014, he added.
The United States has steadily intensified its air campaign against Islamic State and Taliban militants in Afghanistan, with the Air Force deploying almost 500 weapons in the first three months of 2017, up from 300 in the corresponding 2016 period.
During the final stages of testing in 2003, military officials told CNN that the MOAB was mainly conceived as a weapon employed for "psychological operations".
"Being told to "win" in Afghanistan while being told not to use what we needed to do that didn't make a lot of sense then, it doesn't make a lot of sense now", said Jones. The target set has also been expanded to include targets buried under softer surfaces, like caves or tunnels.
Comments