KABUL (TCA) — The United States military has used the army’s largest nonnuclear bomb on an Islamic State (IS) target in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, RFE/RL reports.
In an April 13 statement, the U.S. military said the GBU-43 bomb was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time on an IS tunnel complex in Achin district, close to the border with Pakistan.
The Pentagon said it was the first-ever combat use of the GBU-43 bomb, which weighs more than 10 tons and has been nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs.
A Pentagon spokesman said the bomb was dropped from an MC-130 transport plane.
The strike follows last week’s death of a U.S. special forces soldier fighting IS militants in Nangarhar Province.
It targeted a system of tunnels and caves that IS fighters use to “move around freely, making it easier for them to target U.S. military advisers and Afghan forces in the area,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
Spicer also said all necessary precautions were taken to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage.
U.S. President Donald Trump later told reporters that the bombing was “another very, very successful mission.”
When asked if the bomb had sent a message to North Korea, Trump said: “I don’t know if this sends a message, and it doesn’t make any difference if it does or not.”
“North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of,” he also said.
