Afghanistan: MOAB strike kills more than 90

[Anthea]

MOAB strike: US bombing of IS in Afghanistan 'killed dozens'

A US military strike with a weapon known as the "mother of all bombs" (MOAB) killed 36 ISIS militants and destroyed their base, the Afghan defence ministry says.

The most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used by the US in combat was dropped on ISIS tunnels in Nangarhar province.

No civilians were affected by the explosion, the ministry said (would anyone admit it if there were?)

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack as "an inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country".

Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah confirmed that the attack had been carried out in co-ordination with the government and that "great care had been taken to avoid civilian harm".

The Afghan defence ministry said the bomb struck a village area in the Momand valley where ISIS fighters were using a 300m-long network of caves.

It said the 21,600lb (9,800kg) bomb also destroyed a large stash of weapons.

Presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi told the BBC that ISIS commander Siddiq Yar was among those killed. Mr Murtazawi said the IS fighters in the tunnels had "come from Pakistan and were persecuting people in the local area".

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb was dropped by plane in Achin district on Thursday evening local time, the Pentagon said.

More than 9m (30 ft) in length, it was first tested in 2003 but had not been deployed in combat before.

Achin district governor Ismail Shinwary told the BBC that Afghan special forces, with the help of American air support, had begun anti-ISIS operations in the area 13 days ago.

He said ISIS targets had been bombed regularly but "last night's bombarding was very powerful... the biggest I have ever seen".

Nangarhar Provincial Governor Gulab Mangal said ISIS fighters had used the complex to "kill people and hold important meetings".

A member of an anti-ISIS group in the area who gave his name only as Mohammad told the BBC he was at a checkpoint 1km from the bomb strike.

He said: "We were eating dinner when we heard a big explosion, [I] came out of my room and saw a mountain of fire... the area was full of light with the fire of the bomb."

He said all civilians had left the area since the start of the anti-ISIS operation (which means that there were civilians in the area at the time the bomb was dropped)

Massive blast area - Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent

The clue is in the ungainly name - the MOAB or GBU-43/B massive ordnance air blast is the US military's most destructive conventional (that is non-nuclear) bomb.

It is a huge weapon and is GPS-guided. It was dropped from a MC-130 aircraft - the US Special Forces variant of the Hercules transport. The weapon is carried on a special cradle inside the aircraft from which it is extracted by a parachute.

Its principal effect is a massive blast over a huge area. It is a larger version of weapons used during the Vietnam War.

The Trump administration's policy towards Afghanistan remains under consideration but the use of this weapon sends a powerful signal that ISIS is top of the administration's target list wherever its offshoots may be found.

The US has yet to confirm the results of the strike but President Donald Trump called it "another successful job".

The BBC's Jill McGivering says it remains unclear what President Trump's Afghan strategy will be - he has talked in the past about the need for the US to get out of nation-building and may be keen to extricate himself from this long-running and expensive conflict.

But, she says, he has also expressed determination to stop the spread of ISIS.

Hamid Karzai vehemently condemned the attack, saying on Twitter it was "not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons".

Syria error

ISIS announced the establishment of its Khorasan branch - an old name for Afghanistan and surrounding areas - in January 2015. It was the first time that ISIS had officially spread outside the Arab world.

It was the first major militant group to directly challenge the Afghan Taliban's dominance over the local insurgency.

However, experts say it has struggled to build a wide political base and the indigenous support it expected. It has steadily lost territory and fighters to US air strikes and an assault by Afghan forces on the ground.

Estimates about ISIS's numerical strength inside Afghanistan vary, ranging from several hundred to a few thousand fighters. US forces say their number has been cut in half since early 2016 due to military operations.

The MOAB strike followed last week's death of a US special forces soldier fighting ISIS in Nangarhar.

The news also came hours after the Pentagon admitted an air strike in Syria mistakenly killed 18 rebels.

It said a partnered force had mistakenly identified the target location as an IS position, but the strike on 11 April had killed rebels from the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are backed by Washington.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39598046

[Anthea]

MOAB strike: At least 90 ISIS fighters killed in Afghanistan

At least 90 militants from the Islamic State (ISIS) group were killed by a huge bomb dropped by the US in Afghanistan, a regional governor says.

The most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used by the US in combat was dropped on an ISIS base in Nangarhar province.

A network of tunnels and caves was destroyed on Thursday evening local time, US officials said.

The death toll was confirmed to the BBC by Ismail Shinwary, the governor of Achin province within Nangarhar.

ISIS had earlier said it had not suffered any casualties in the blast.

No civilians were killed in the explosion, Mr Shinwary said. The Chief Executive of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, said the attack had been carried out in co-ordination with his government and "great care had been taken to avoid civilian harm".

I do NOT believe that a bomb that size did not kill any civilians

However, one resident close to where the blast happened told the BBC some homes were destroyed. The explosion lit up the whole night sky, he said.

Known as the "mother of all bombs", or MOAB, the device was dropped on Thursday evening by an MC-130 transport plane, falling in Nangarhar's Achin district.

It was the first time the bomb, one of only 15 ever built, had been used in combat.

When ISIS announced the establishment of its Khorasan branch - an old name for Afghanistan and surrounding areas - in January 2015, it was the first time the group had officially spread outside the Arab world.

"The enemy had created bunkers, tunnels and extensive mine fields, and this weapon was used to reduce those obstacles so that we could continue our offensive in southern Nangarhar," said Gen John Nicholson, the most senior US military commander in Afghanistan.

While the attack was supported by the Afghan government, former president Hamid Karzai said it represented an "inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons".

Mr Shinwary had earlier confirmed to the BBC that Afghan special forces, with the help of American air support, had begun anti-ISIS operations in the area two weeks ago.

But reports say fighting has intensified in recent days. Last Saturday, an American special forces soldier was killed fighting militants.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39607213