New York Daily News – by Chris Sommerfeldt, Terence Cullen
As many as 36 ISIS militants were killed when the U.S. dropped its biggest non-nuclear bomb on a terrorist encampment in Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.
The colossal explosion — caused by a 21,600-pound weapon nicknamed the “mother of all bombs” — so far hasn’t killed any civilians after destroying a network of tunnels and caves used by ISIS, U.S. and Afghan forces said.
Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan , on Friday defended his decision to use the powerful bomb.
“This was the right weapon for the right target,” Nicholson said at a Kabul press conference.
“Let me be clear, we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our Afghan comrades to destroy ISIS-K in 2017,” he added, referring to the terror group’s Afghanistan branch.
New Pentagon video shows the moment of the blast on an ISIS compound in Afghanistan.
(UNITED STATES PENTAGON)
A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry added that only the ISIS base — located in the Nangarhar province — was destroyed in the attack.
U.S. military forces on Friday also released new video of the strike, showing the moment of impact.
Nearby residents said the blast could be heard and felt from miles away.
“The earth felt like a boat in a storm,” Mohammad Shahzadah, who lives about a mile and a half from the blast zone, told The Guardian. “I thought my house was being bombed. Last year a drone strike targeted a house next to mine, but this time it felt like the heavens were falling. The children and women were very scared.”
Pentagon video of “mother of all bombs” drop in Afghanistan https://t.co/NflH8bnnM1 pic.twitter.com/BhX4nw3SJZ
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 14, 2017
Others questioned the need for such a weapon.
“There is no doubt that (ISIS) are brutal and that they have committed atrocities against our people. But I don’t see why the bomb was dropped,” Naweed Shinwari, mayor of nearby Achin, told The Guardian. “It terrorised our people. My relatives thought the end of the world had come. Everyday fighter jets, helicopters and drones are in the area.”
Officially known as the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, the $16 million weapon can level an area equivalent to nine New York City blocks.
Thursday was the first time the military used the bomb in combat, having developed the explosive in the early 2000s during the second Iraq War.
A group gathers around a GBU-43B on display at the Air Force Armament Museum on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
(MARK KULAW/AP)
President Trump praised the earth shattering bombing as “another successful job.”
“We’re very, very proud of our military,” he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “It was another successful event.”
With News Wire Services
HELL YEA!!!!
GO TRAMP!!!!!!
KILL ‘EM ALL!!!!
USA! USA! USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
36 fighters killed will have zero effect on that conflict. That bombing may even lead to the recruitment of more fighters, which would make the bombing counterproductive.
You can’t kill an idea or a tactic with military force. It just can’t be done. But of course that’s the whole purpose of the “War on Terror”: perpetual war.
*** “We’re very, very proud of our military,” he told reporters at the White House on Thursday. ***
I’m not. I’m disgusted with them for volunteering to serve this corrupt oligarchy when the truth about the Pentagon’s wars has been universally available for well over a decade. I’m even more disgusted about their utter failure to keep their oath to the Constitution.
36 dead at a cost of 19 million, depreciation on air craft, fuel, support operations, supply chain to deliver…more like 24 million for 36 lives…huge waste of us debt..fing moron.
“… so far hasn’t killed any civilians after destroying a network of tunnels and caves used by ISIS, U.S. and Afghan forces said.”
At least not until the depleted uranium reaches them.
Interesting acronym… OT region.
The sum of the integers from 1 to 36 is 666
More occultism, always.
how do you count bodies when there is nothing left?
Total BS, you silly wabbits,
Precisely.