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

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

By Lucas Tomlinson
Published April 13, 2017 FoxNews.com

The U.S. military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, just days after a Green Beret was killed fighting ISIS there, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News.

The GBU-43B, a 21,000-pound conventional bomb, was dropped on an ISIS tunnel complex in Nangarhar Province.

http://a57.foxnews.com/images.foxnew....jpg?ve=1&tl=1Expand / Contract

The Massive Ordinance Air Blast was first tested in 2003. (DOD)


The MOAB -- Massive Ordinance Air Blast -- is also known as the “Mother Of All bombs.” It was first tested in 2003, but hadn't been used in combat before Thursday.

The MOAB is so massive it had to be dropped out of the back of a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane.

"We kicked it out the back door," one U.S. official told Fox News.

For comparison to the 21,000-pound MOAB, each Tomahawk cruise missile launched at a Syrian military air base last week was 1,000-pounds each.

"As [ISIS'] losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]."

The statement said U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04...et-killed.html

I bet that was great news for the military suppliers?????????

That bomb cost $16 MILLION, plus delivery cost.

And they blew up a bunch of dirt.

They should have dropped it on the Syrian airbase runway last week.

I'm okay with using it against 1,000 ISIS fighters. Fox News is reporting that the General in Afghanistan made the call to use the bomb. Trump said he's given them much more authority.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Judy

I'm okay with using it against 1,000 ISIS fighters. Fox News is reporting that the General in Afghanistan made the call to use the bomb. Trump said he's given them much more authority.

---

Where did you get the "1,000 ISIS fighters" from? I haven't seen anything like that in any of the many articles I have read.

It was on Fox News interview. This area where the bomb hit was tunnels and bunkers for about 1,000 ISIS fighters.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Judy

It was on Fox News interview. This area where the bomb hit was tunnels and bunkers for about 1,000 ISIS fighters.

---

BING BING BING

GO DJT

Exactly.

Stay Tuned.

FOX News (Link included) says there are 600 to 800 ISIS fighters in the entire country of Afghanistan. The bomb didn't take out the entire country.


"The U.S. estimates that between 600 to 800 ISIS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated heavily on combatting them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban."


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04...et-killed.html

The person on Fox News who said there were 1,000 ISIS fighers in this area of Afghanistan using these tunnels, caves and bunkers they bombed today is Pete Hegseth. Take it up with him.

Thursday’s strike in Afghanistan — using a 20,000-pound bomb that cost $16 million, and more than $300 million to develop — hit a tunnel complex in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province, according to a statement from the United States military in Afghanistan. The statement did not say how many militants were killed, or whether the bombing caused any civilian casualties.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/w...ghanistan.html

View image on Twitter

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9Tw_XWWAAEHCWg.jpg:small

Follow

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...gQD_normal.png
U.S. Central Command
✔@CENTCOM

.@USFOR_A #US Forces targets ISIS-K stronghold, drops GBU-43 #MOAB bomb on #ISIS
10:16 AM - 13 Apr 2017

• 
  
• 
  4,4154,415 Retweets
• 
  9,6479,647 likes

Sounds good. Trump promised he was going to destroy ISIS and it looks like that's what he's trying to do. In fact at a rally he said he was "going to bomb the shite out of ISIS."

Bombs Away ... as promised.

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.

Duplicate delete.

Quote:

---

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.”


http://www.trbimg.com/img-58f0bf1d/t...14/250/250x141
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.

ALSO
'Take Ahmed and let me die': Victims of U.S. airstrike in Mosul recount a day of horror

'Mother of all bombs' kills 36 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, sparks mix of anger and praise on the ground

Islamic State has fewer than 1,000 fighters in Afghanistan. So why did Trump drop the 'mother of all bombs'?

---

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

Quote:

---

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".

Quote:

---

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.

Quote:

---

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. :cool:

Or, just make up your own facts.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

You can believe our Government,

The Media,

or Russia, Judy and INFOWARS.

Take your pick. :cool:

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".

:)

I post articles to make everyone aware of them and to give them an opportunity to comment on them, in any way they want.
If the articles don't get posted people don't get a chance to comment on them.
Just like the articles that you post.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

I post articles to make everyone aware of them and to give them an opportunity to comment on them, in any way they want.
If the articles don't get posted people don't get a chance to comment on them.
Just like the articles that you post.

---

Yes, you post a lot of articles, and work very hard at it. I and others appreciate all the effort you put into posting all of these articles you post, so aren't I included in that "chance to comment on them" without being derided by you, because I question some of it?

The problem is that you seem to think that everyone else wants to know your opinion on every article posted.
Give us a break and let someone, anyone, post their opinion once in awhile without you arguing with them.
We know you want to be the center of attention all of the time, you need not prove it.

I consider that an outrageously dishonest personal insult and personal attack. I could care less who reads what I post, it's there for anyone who wants to read it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Judy

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".

:)

---

Why do you say JD2 posted 78,000 lies? Who are you to call anything he's posted a lie? Just because you don't agree with something doesn't make it a lie. We all post articles that some don't agree with at times. Heck, while I can't speak for everyone, I have posted plenty of articles in the past that I didn't even believe or support. I'm sure JD2 has done the same. IMO, your comment here was very unfair and provoking.

LOL!! You have to keep up with the whole thread, MW.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

You can believe our Government,

The Media,

or Russia, Judy and INFOWARS.

Take your pick. :cool:

Or, just make up your own facts.

---

Well, many decades of observation, I don't pick our government or the media. Truly, I don't know how anyone could.

As for Russia, who knows. At this point in time, I KNOW of less reasons to not believe Russia than I do our own government - and definitely the news media.

Infowars - not perfect, a little out in left field - at least in it's presentation. The fact is, however, it has a better track record than does our very own media - and government. Think about it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nntrixie

. . . As for Russia, who knows. At this point in time, I KNOW of less reasons to not believe Russia than I do our own government . . . Think about it.

---

Russian TV calls Donald Trump scarier than Kim Jong-Un

Yep, silliness.

We have to admit we have seen and heard worse from our very own 'media'.

They were just worried about that big carrier being in the Korean Peninsula, that wasn't even there. Russia is really slipping not to have already known that. Or did they know but the "presenter" was running with the hysteria of our own media. I heard that comparison on either Fox or CNN several days ago, that's where the idea came from. In fact I think it was Red Eye, as a joke.