President Donald Trump has said the US military has been “successful” lately because his administration has given them “total authorisation”, as he hailed the forces for dropping the largest non-nuclear bomb targeting an Islamic State complex in Afghanistan.
A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed ‘Mother Of All Bombs’, was dropped on a tunnel complex of ISIS-Khorasan, a regional affiliate of the terror group, in Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nanagarh province, close to the border with Pakistan.The GBU-43 is a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon. We targeted a system of tunnels and caves that ISIS fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target US military advisers and Afghan forces in the area,” Spicer said.
“The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously and in order to defeat the group, we must deny them operational space, which we did. The US took all precautions necessary to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage as a result of the operation,” he said.
The strike is part of the ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan, the US Central Command (USCENTCOM) said.
Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, is a hotbed of IS militancy. According to the Department of Defence, there are about 600-800 ISIS-K fighters in the region where bomb was dropped.