Thread: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan after Green Beret killed

CNN reporting 36 ISIS fighters killed in the bombing. The tunnels and caves are a "ratway" used by Al Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS going back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the "ratway" used by Osama bin Laden when he escaped Afghanistan years ago and has been a main thoroughfare for terrorists.

Originally Posted by Judy

CNN reporting 36 ISIS fighters killed in the bombing. The tunnels and caves are a "ratway" used by Al Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS going back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the "ratway" used by Osama bin Laden when he escaped Afghanistan years ago and has been a main thoroughfare for terrorists.

I would have thought we could get more bang for our buck ($16 million) in other ways. I believe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could have killed more than 36 ISIS fighters.

I have no problem dropping the bomb if it actually destroyed all the tunnels, however, if it didn't, that's a mighty expensive price to pay for the destruction of a handful of tunnels. With only 36 ISIS fighters in the area, a SEAL Team could have knocked out those tunnels in short order for a lot less than $16 million.

Massive U.S. bomb's death toll rises to 94, Afghan official says

Sultan Faizy

Afghan officials said Saturday that 94 militants were killed in a massive U.S. bomb blast targeting Islamic State’s regional affiliate, nearly three times as many as was reported a day earlier.

Ismail Shinwari, governor of Achin district in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where the 20,000-pound bomb struck Thursday evening, said there were no reports of civilian casualties.

The dead included several leaders of the Islamic State affiliate, which is loosely connected to the main militant organization based in Iraq and Syria, Afghan officials said.

U.S. military officials said the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — dubbed the “mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat — targeted an underground network of caves and tunnels that Islamic State fighters had used for weeks to evade an ongoing operation by U.S. and Afghan forces.

The Afghan government said it had worked with the U.S. military to coordinate the bomb strike, a sharp escalation of the U.S. fight against Islamic State in Afghanistan.

But the use of the massive weapon has also drawn criticism, including from former President Hamid Karzai, who told a gathering in Kabul on Saturday that it amounted to “a national treason.”

Most residents of the village of Shodal, a mountainside hamlet near the tunnels, had evacuated the area on the orders of Afghan special forces, limiting the harm to civilians, officials said.

U.S. helicopters continued to launch strikes near the village Saturday, providing cover for Afghan troops and U.S. military advisors on the ground. The area in remote Achin district, close to the Pakistani border, is considered one of the main redoubts of a militant group estimated to number from 600 to 800 fighters.

During a brief lull, farmers returned to Shodal to check on lands they had abandoned.

Hanifullah, a 62-year-old Shodal resident who raises chickens and sheep, had left the village and was staying at his brother’s house when the bomb struck.

“The bomb’s reverberations wave frightened me so badly,” he said as he headed back into the village to check the damage. “I have witnessed thousands of battles, but no bomb scared me like this one did.”



Aerial Footage of MOAB Bomb Striking Cave, Tunnel System


Faizy is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Shashank Bengali contributed to this report from Mumbai, India.

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UPDATES:
5:05 a.m.: This article was updated with Times reporting.
This article was first published at 3:30 a.m.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-a...415-story.html

Originally Posted by MW

I would have thought we could get more bang for our buck ($16 million) in other ways. I believe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could have killed more than 36 ISIS fighters.

I have no problem dropping the bomb if it actually destroyed all the tunnels, however, if it didn't, that's a mighty expensive price to pay for the destruction of a handful of tunnels. With only 36 ISIS fighters in the area, a SEAL Team could have knocked out those tunnels in short order for a lot less than $16 million.

There's a 1,000 ISIS fighters in the area.

US ground forces have been trying to take out this ratway of caves and tunnels for 16 years.

General Nicholson took it out with this big bomb in 3 minutes.

There's two types of people in this world, people who can't win or end a war.

And the other type who can.

We'll know soon what type we have in charge now.

Somehow, it doesn't sound like we got our money's worth.

But who knows anymore.

We are lied to on a daily basis - hourly basis.

At least 100 killed after car bomb explodes near buses carrying Syrian evacuees

I bet that car bomb didn't cost $16 MILLION

Right. Why don't you and MW hop on a plane to Afghanistan and try it out with ISIS? Maybe hook up with a SEAL team. It's just amazing that the military couldn't blow up this 1 mile wide stretch of area in the mountainous rocks of Afghanistan with a "car bomb".

Originally Posted by nntrixie

Somehow, it doesn't sound like we got our money's worth.

But who knows anymore.

We are lied to on a daily basis - hourly basis.

The DNC and NEVER TRUMP narrative makes it sound that way. Don't believe it. Fight it.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

Somehow, it doesn't sound like we got our money's worth.

But who knows anymore.

We are lied to on a daily basis - hourly basis.

You can believe our Government,

The Media,

or Russia, Judy and INFOWARS.

Take your pick.

Or, just make up your own facts.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

You can believe our Government,

The Media,

or Russia, Judy and INFOWARS.

Take your pick.

Or, just make up your own facts.

So why do you post all those government and media lies, JD2? Almost 78,000 lies you've posted on our ALIPAC. Wow. That's a lot of lies you're spreading around. Why do you do that? Sounds to me like you're getting a little frustrated and that ain't "cool".