US drops its biggest non-nuclear weapon, the 11-tonne ‘mother of all bombs’, on Islamic State in Afghanistan
The US military’s bomb killed at least 36 militants as it decimated a deep tunnel complex of the Islamic State group, Afghan officials said
US 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 ever used in combat by the US military, Pentagon officials said.
The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air-blast weapon, unleashes 11 tonnes of explosives. It has never before been used in combat. When it was developed in the early 2000s, the Pentagon did a formal review of legal justification for its use.
The Pentagon said it had no early estimate of deaths or damage caused by its attack, which US President Donald Trump called a “very, very successful mission.”
However Afghanistan officials said the US attack left 36 Islamic State group fighters dead and there were no civilian casualties.
It’s unclear how officials came up with the death toll figure after such a destructive blast.
The US military headquarters in Kabul said that the bomb was dropped at 7.32pm local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Achin district of Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group has been operating. The target was close to the Pakistani border.