U.S. Drops ‘Mother of All Bombs’ on ISIS Tunnels in Afghanistan Pentagon says plane dropped one of the largest nonnuclear bombs in its arsenal on tunnel-and-cave complex By Jessica Donati, Ben Kesling and Dion Nissenbaum

Posted By on April 14th, 2017

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-drops-its-largest-non-nuclear-bomb-on-isis-tunnel-complex-in-afghanistan-1492104067

The U.S. military dropped one of the largest nonnuclear bombs in its arsenal Thursday on an Islamic State tunnel-and-cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

A U.S. plane dropped the nearly 22,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb—nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs—just a few days after an American Special Forces soldier was killed during a joint U.S.-Afghan offensive against dug-in Islamic State positions in the same area.

“We have been waiting months to use it,” said an allied official in Afghanistan. “I think the loss of our soldier helped motivate leaders to approve it.”

 The bomb is a precision-guided “smart bomb” designed to cause maximum damage to bunkers, tunnels and other areas that can typically withstand even large standard bombs or artillery strikes.President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he had not personally been involved in the decision to use the giant bomb, which is deployed by parachute from the rear ramp of a transport plane. “I authorize my military,” Mr. Trump said. “We have given them total authorization.”  CONTINUE AT SITE
Categorized under: FOREIGN POLICY.
Tagged with: no tags.

Comments are closed.