Афганистан

[Reitarou]

Afghan government: 'Mother of All Bombs' kills 36 ISIS fighters, no civilian casualties

KABUL, Afghanistan — The attack on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Afghanistan with the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military left 36 Islamic State group fighters dead and no civilian casualties, Afghanistan officials said Friday.

The Ministry of Defense said in a statement that several ISIS-Khorasan caves and ammunition caches were destroyed by the giant bomb, which terrified villagers on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with its "earsplitting blast."

The U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said the bomb was dropped at about 7:30 p.m. local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group has been operating. The target was close to the Pakistani border.

"I want a hundred times more bombings on this group," said Hakim Khan, 50, a resident of Achin district, the site of the blast.

Pakistani villagers living near the Afghan border said the explosion was so loud they thought a bomb had been dropped in their village by U.S. warplanes targeting terrorists in Pakistan.

"I was sleeping when we heard a loud explosion. It was an earsplitting blast," said Shah Wali, 46, who lives in the village of Goor Gari, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Nangarhar. "I jumped from my bed and came out of my home to see what has gone wrong in our village."

Wali said dozens of other villagers also came out of homes and later he went near the border, where he met with other residents. He said he could see smoke in the sky.

The U.S. estimates 600 to 800 ISIS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated heavily on combatting them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban. President Trump called Thursday's operation a "very, very successful mission."

The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43/B, or Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, weighs 21,600 pounds and unleashes 11 tons of explosives. When it was made in 2003 as a deterrent to Saddam Hussein, it was nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs." This was its first use in combat.