Afghanistan: Death toll from MOAB attack revised to 92

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A 300 meter long tunnel, along with large amounts of light and heavy weapons and munition were destroyed in the bombing, the Afghan defence ministry said Friday.

Now U.S. officials say militants affiliated to the Middle East-based Islamic State network have begun fortifying caves in the region in an effort to hold off joint operations by Afghan and U.S. forces.

"This weapon was used against Isis-K and their sanctuary inside Afghanistan", NATO forces commander General John Nicholson said., according to the AP.

USA forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with "the mother of all bombs", the largest non-nuclear weapon every used in combat by the us military, Pentagon officials said. The GBU-43 bomb known as "Mother Of All Bombs" was dropped in Afghanistan targeting an IS complex.

"It was a strong position and four times we had operations (attacking the site) and it was not possible to advance", he said, adding that the road leading to the complex "was full of mines".

'It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield'.

"We have US Forces at the site and we see no evidence of civilian casualties nor have there been reports", Nicholson said.

"The bomb's reverberations wave frightened me so badly", he said as he headed back into the village to check the damage.

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In its second major display of military might in one week, the U.S. dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb on ISIS positions in a remote part of Afghanistan. The Pentagon previously said there were hundreds of militant fighters in the area.

Pentagon officials said the USA commander who ordered the use of the bomb did not need President Donald Trump's approval.

At least 36 ISIS fighters were eliminated in the attack including a couple of new recruits from Kerala.

Former president Hamid Karzai slammed government over the move and said it had been nothing more than a weapons of mass destruction test and that it had been in violation of Afghanistan's national sovereignty. The dead included the brother of the late Da'ish leader Hafiz Saeed, who was killed in a U.S. air strike a year ago, officials said.

"Precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties with this air strike", Ghani said. The U.S. has concentrated on fighting them while also supporting Afghan forces against the Taliban.

In March, U.S. forces conducted 79 "counterterror strikes" against Islamic State in Nangarhar, killing as many as 200 militants, according to the U.S. military command in Kabul.

"I have witnessed a countless number of explosions and bombings in the last 30 years of war in Afghanistan, but this one was more powerful than any other bomb as far as I remember".

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