At roughly 7pm local time, the United States military for the first time ever, used a GBU-43 bomb to target caves and tunnels in Aghanistan, denying operational space to ISIS, Sean Spicer said during a press briefing.
.@PressSec: "The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously." https://t.co/AtIMfKSdrE pic.twitter.com/Sa9BW10Sgi
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As we detailed earlier, perhaps in preparation for upcoming events on the Korean Peninsula, CNN reports the US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, each of which costs $16 million and nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, the sources said. The MOAB is also known as the "mother of all bombs." A MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is America's most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
This is the first time a MOAB, which was developed during the Iraq War, has been used in the battlefield.
According to Barbara Starr, the bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command. They said the target was ISIS tunnels and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.
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 military is currently assessing the damage. Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of the bomb, according to the sources.
We expect the Trump administration will promptly released a video of the bombing, which may serve a secondary purpose of hinting to North Korea's Kim what may be coming. Until we wwait, here is a video of the bomb in action.