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The United States has dropped a massive GBU-43 bomb, the biggest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, in eastern Afghanistan targeting a network of caves and tunnels used by Islamic State militants.
Key points:
- GBU-43 bomb weighs just under 10,000kg
- It is not known how much damage the bomb caused, but Trump praises its "success"
- Strike was designed to "maximise destruction" of IS fighters and facilities
President Donald Trump touted the bombing as evidence of a more muscular US foreign policy since he took office in January after eight years of President Barack Obama.
The 9,797-kilogram GBU-43 bomb was dropped from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said.
It was the first time the United States has used this size of bomb in a conflict.
The GBU-43, also known as the "mother of all bombs" (MOAB), is a GPS-guided munition and was first tested in March 2003 just days before the start of the Iraq War.
It is regarded as particularly effective against clusters of targets on or just underneath the ground.
The US military headquarters in Kabul said in a statement that the bomb was dropped at 7:32pm (local time) on Thursday.
Mr Trump described the bombing as a "very successful mission" — it was not immediately clear how much damage the device did.
"If you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that really to what's happened over the last eight years, you'll see that there's a tremendous difference," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
General John Nicholson, the head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said the bomb was used against caves and bunkers housing fighters of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K.
"This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K," General Nicholson said in a statement.
General Nicholson said the strike was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the Achin area "while maximising the destruction" of IS fighters and facilities.
He said IS had been using improvised explosive devices, bunkers and tunnels to strengthen its defences.
'This is a very specialised weapon, we don't have many'
White House spokesman Sean Spicer opened his daily news briefing speaking about the use of the bomb.
"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," he said.
Last week, a US soldier was killed in the same district as the bomb was dropped, while conducting operations against the Islamic State group.
"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," Mr Spicer said.
He described the device as "a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon" and said the US took "all precautions necessary to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage".
Foreign policy experts added that it appeared the use of a specialised weapon like the GBU-43 had more to do with the type of target — tunnels — than the United States sending any message to other countries by using such a powerful weapon.
"This is a very specialised weapon, we don't have very many of them, you can only use them in a very narrow set of circumstances," said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.
Mr Cancian added that while sending a message to Syria or North Korea could have been among the secondary factors considered, they would not have been the main reason for using this type of weapon.
But Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a Democrat who was the only "no" vote for authorisation for use of military force in Afghanistan in 2001, said the move was unprecedented and asked for an explanation.
"President Trump owes the American people an explanation about his escalation of military force in Afghanistan and his long-term strategy to defeat ISIS," she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, some critics were also quick to point that out while the MOAB is the most powerful single conventional bomb deployed on the battlefield in history, in 2016, the US reportedly dropped over 26,000 bombs on targets the world — roughly 70 a day.
The average bomb size is roughly 250 kilograms, which means that last year, the US unleashed some 17,500 kilograms of explosives daily, which would equate to nearly two MOABs a day.
US officials say intelligence suggests Islamic State is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province.
Estimates of its strength in Afghanistan vary. US officials have said they believe the movement has only 700 fighters but Afghan officials estimate it has about 1,500.
The Afghan Taliban, which is trying to overthrow the US-backed Government in Kabul, is fiercely opposed to Islamic State and the two groups have clashed as they seek to expand territory and influence.
Wires/ABC
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, afghanistan, united-states
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