Normangee Star April 16, 2017

ISIS fighters killed by 'MOAB'

By Madeline Patrick

President Donald Trump said Thursday the bombing was "another successful job".

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 yesterday.

Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, is a hotbed of IS militancy.

The claims have not been independently verified, but ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said no civilians were harmed in the massive blast that targeted a network of caves and tunnels.

The 9.8-tonne guided bomb, the largest non-nuclear weapon in America's arsenal, is described by the US-based GlobalSecurity.org watchdog as "large, powerful and accurately delivered". "We targeted a system of tunnels and caves that ISIS fighters used to move around freely making it easy for them to target the USA military advisors and afghan forces in the area".

The Afghan leader tweeted his concern after the United States dropped "the mother of all bombs,"+ on eastern Afghanistan yesterday, as part of what it calls its "war on terror".

"Precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties with this air strike", Ghani said. He said there has been heavy fighting in the area in recent weeks between Afghan forces and ISIS militants.

"It is going to have a profound effect not just in the immediate area, but the concussion extends for a considerable distance", he said. Its fighters have been engaged in a years-long insurgency against the government and worldwide forces in Afghanistan.

"This was the right weapon for the right target", General John Nicholson told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

On Twitter, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani approved of the strike, saying it was "designed to support the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and United States forces. conducting clearance operations in the region".

This is how the country's residents and officials reacted.

It was developed in 2002-2003 by Alabama-based aerospace and defence company Dynetics in partnership with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), according to the company's website.

The Afghanistan bombing, along with the intervention in Syria last week, mark a dramatic change in attitude for Trump, who advocated an isolationist, America-first foreign policy during his election campaign.

There was no immediate comment from the Islamic State group or other militants regarding the US bomb attack.

"But I think, also, President Trump must have decided: 'Yes, get on and do it, because it is consistent with the message I want to send to the rest of the world'".