The United States has dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb on a tunnel complex in Afghanistan, targeting the ISIS Khorasan group, the U.S. military said.
The use of the GBU-43/B, known as the “mother of all bombs” is a first for the battlefield, and was dropped in Nangarhar province on Thursday with, with the target being a tunnel complex in Achin district said to be used by the ISIS-Khorasan militant group.
According to several US media reports, there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the massive blast.
The U.S. military said it took precaution to avoid civilian casualties.
Called the “Massive Ordnance Air Blast,” the bomb has been nicknamed “Mother of All Bombs,” and was developed in 2003. The bomb is 30-feet long and weighs 21,000 pounds.
“As ISIS-K’s losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense,” General John “Mick” Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said in a statement.
“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K.”
As per reports, on Saturday, Staff Seargant Mark R. De Alencar was killed in Nangarhar province while fighting the ISIS-Khorasan group, an ISIS affiliate that operates in Afghanistan.
The U.S. military says Nangarhar province, on the eastern border near Pakistan, has been been a base of operations for ISIS since 2015.
The military statement said the bomb was dropped from “a U.S. aircraft,” and the strike “was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. Forces conducting clearing operations in the area while maximizing the destruction of ISIS-K fighters and facilities.”
