Afghan officials say the largest non-nuclear bomb the USA has ever used in combat killed at least 36 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, according to the AFP News Agency.
The 30-foot-long, 21,600-pound bomb is the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the USA military arsenal, capable of destroying an area equal to nine city blocks.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb - better known as the "mother of all bombs" - hit IS hideouts in Achin district in eastern Nangarhar province.
It is the first time the bomb, known as GBU-43, has ever been used in combat since it was developed in 2003, the Afghan Defence Ministry said on Friday.
A representative for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan did not react to an inquiry with respect to the bomb's impacts on its planned focus on, an Islamic State burrow complex in Nangarhar region.
At the time when gotten some information about the bomb Thursday, President Trump commended the military as the "greatest" on the planet.
Designed for destroying underground targets but not itself a deep-earth penetrator weapon, the GBU-43/B has the explosive yield of more than 11 tons of TNT, The Guardian said.
Such aircraft can carry as much as 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg) of bombs, missiles, or other weapons on each mission.
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Clark County Fire Department confirmed the fire was eventually extinguished after crews had difficulties accessing the source. He said the location of the blaze made it hard for the 10 fire engines and 77 fire personnel to access.
"I was sleeping when we heard a loud explosion".
The bombing in Afghanistan comes a week after Trump authorized a U.S. missile strike against a Syrian government air base - the first U.S. strike against the Syrian government in the country's six-year civil war. "Towering flames engulfed the area", Shinwari told AFP.
One would have thought that the bomb would wipe off the entire IS-held territory but it only killed 36 fighters.
The Pentagon's announcement of the attack drove markets down, with Asian bourses headed south following overnight losses on Wall Street.
The airstrike follows last week's surprise missile strike on a Syrian airfield, in the first U.S. military action against the Syrian regime in the six years of conflict there. The BLU-82 was used numerous circumstances in the early phases of the war in Afghanistan when USA powers were surrounding Osama canister Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
IS, notorious for its reign of terror in Syria and Iraq, has been making inroads into Afghanistan in recent years.
"Trump has stressed that he wants the military to use whatever weapons are necessary to kill ISIS [Daesh] terrorists, [so] this may have been a way to highlight that fact". The U.S. has concentrated heavily on combatting them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban.
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