An attack on a tunnel complex in Afghanistan with the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the US military left 36 Islamic State militants dead and no civilian casualties.

The attack was in a remote mountainous area of Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border where there had been heavy fighting between Afghan forces and Islamic State (IS) militants.

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that several IS caves and ammunition caches were destroyed by the giant bomb, which terrified villagers on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with its "earsplitting blast".

Pentagon officials described it as the "mother of all bombs".

The US maintains over 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, training local forces and conducting counter-terrorism operations.

Over the past year they have largely concentrated on a surge of attacks by the Taliban but on Friday the US military appeared entirely focused on IS.

"This is the right weapon for the right target," said US general John W Nicholson, Nato commander in Afghanistan.

The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives.

US president Donald Trump called Thursday's operation a "very, very successful mission".

General Daulat Waziri, of the Afghanistan Ministry of Defence, said 36 IS fighters were killed by the blast and the death toll could rise.

This image made from a Thursday, April 13, 2017 video released by the U.S. Department of Defense shows a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb strike on an Islamic State militant cave and tunnel systems in the Achin district of the Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan.

He said the bombing was necessary because the tunnel complex was extremely hard to penetrate, with some as deep as 40m.

"It was a strong position and four times we had operations (attacking the site) and it was not possible to advance," he said, adding that the road leading to the complex "was full of mines".

Pakistani villagers living near the Afghan border said the explosion was so loud they thought a bomb had been dropped in their village by US planes targeting terrorists in Pakistan.

"I was sleeping when we heard a loud explosion. It was an ear-splitting blast," said Shah Wali, 46, who lives in the village of Goor Gari, 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Nangarhar.

"I jumped from my bed and came out of my home to see what has gone wrong in our village."

Mufti Khan, a resident of Achin in Nangarhar, said: "The whole house was shaking. When I came out of my house I saw a large fire and the whole area was burning."

Another Achin resident, Mohammad Hakim, voiced his approval, saying: "We are very happy and these kinds of bombs should be used in future as well, so Daesh is rooted out from here."

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"They killed our women, youths and elders sitting them on mines. We also ask the Kabul government to use even stronger weapons against them," Mr Hakim added.

The US estimates 600 to 800 IS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar.

Inamullah Meyakhil, spokesman for the central hospital in eastern Nangarhar province, said it had received no dead or wounded from the attack.

District governor Ismail Shinwari said there is no civilian property near the strike location.

The Site Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist organisations, reported a statement from the Afghan Taliban condemning the US for its "terrorist" attack.

The statement said it is the responsibility of Afghans, not the US, to remove Islamic State from the country.</s>America drops Mother of All Bombs in Afghanistan

America drops Mother of All Bombs in Afghanistan

America drops Mother of All Bombs in Afghanistan

A huge bomb, equivalent to 11 tons of dynamite, has been used against ISIS in Afghanistan by the United States of America.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb – better known by its nickname, the “Mother Of All Bombs” – hit a tunnel complex in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, US Forces Afghanistan said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump called the mission “very, very successful.”

The huge bomb, delivered via an MC-130 transport plane, has a blast yield equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, and the weapon was originally designed as much to intimidate foes as to clear broad areas.

“The GBU-43/B is the largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat,” Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder said.

“The explosion was the biggest I have ever seen. Towering flames engulfed the area,” said Achin District Governor Esmail Shinwari.

“We don’t know anything about the casualties so far, but since it is an ISIS stronghold we think a lot of Islamic State fighters may have been killed,” Shinwari said.

US Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for US Forces Afghanistan, said that a bomb damage assessment was being carried out.

As to the possibility of civilian casualties from such a huge weapon, Salvin said: “Friendly forces scouted the area and noted the lack of civilian presence.

The target was chosen to ensure the maximum effect against (IS) while preventing civilian casualties.”

The strike hit a system of tunnels and caves that ISIS fighters had used to “move around freely, making it easier for them to target US military advisers and Afghan forces” nearby, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

“We must deny them operational space, which we did,” Spicer added.

The Afghan government was aware of the US plan to bomb the ISIS tunnel complex, presidential spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi suggested.

“Heavy casualties have been inflicted on the enemy,” Murtazawi said on Facebook, ruling out the possibility of civilian casualties.

The Mother of All Bombs OAB was developed in 2003, around the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The US military on Tuesday said an American special forces soldier had been killed while conducting operations against ISIS in Nangarhar.

Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, died on 8 April in Nangarhar Province of injuries sustained when his unit came in contact with ISIS fighters.</s>The U.S. Air Force has deployed a so-called GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, known as the “Mother of All Bombs” in Afghanistan, according to reports citing military personnel.

The more-than-20,000-pound bomb was dropped Thursday by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force special operatives, NBC reported.

Sources told the news organization that the mission targeted an ISIS tunnel network and personnel in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province., near the border of Pakistan.

MOAB is the largest nonnuclear bomb and is valued primarily for its ability to penetrate deep into Earth’s surface. According to an article from Global Research Centre for Research on Globalization, such bombs are able to drill through 200 feet of reinforced concrete.

It is reportedly the first time MOAB has been used in an actual military operation. Below is a video of the testing of the bomb, which can deliver a blast with a radius of about one mile:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the MOAB target was a system of caves and tunnels used by ISIS.

Geopolitical worries, including strained U.S.-Russia ties and growing aggression with North Korea, had Wall Street markets appearing to take a fresh leg lower as news of the bomb’s being dropped surfaced.

The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.41% is off 8 points, or 0.4%, at 2,336; the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.46% is down 84 points, or 0.4%, at 20,505; and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.29% has retreated 15 points, or 0.3%, at 5,821.

Meanwhile so-called haven assets, which draw buyers during times of uncertainty, such as gold, were rising. Gold GCM7, +0.78% already trending higher previously, was up 0.8% at $1,288.50 an ounce, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.23% was hovering around at five-month low at 2.23%.</s>A US Air Force C-130J Hercules aircraft in Alaska on July 20. US Air Force Photo

The US has deployed the largest nonnuclear bomb in its inventory on an ISIS target in a remote part of far northeast Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

US forces in Afghanistan dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, whose acronym has inspired the nickname "Mother of All Bombs," over the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, which borders northwest Pakistan.

The MOAB, which was developed during the Iraq War, is the US's largest nonnuclear bomb and had not been used in combat until now.

The 30-foot-long bomb weighs 21,000 pounds — 18,700 pounds of which is the warhead — and was dropped from a C-130 aircraft a little after 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, the Pentagon said.

"This is a weapon that would be used against a large footprint on the ground," CNN analyst Barbara Starr said. The target in question was reportedly an ISIS complex of tunnels, caves, and a camp where personnel were assembling.

The bomb explodes in the air above its target and creates overpressure designed to crush tunnels and everything in them.

The area is very close to the Pakistan border, Starr said, and "is still a border that is not really controlled."

"And they have seen ISIS develop on the Afghanistan side of the this border," she added.

A Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, aka the "Mother of All Bombs," being prepared for testing at the Eglin Air Force Armament Center in 2003. DoD Photo

"At 7:32 p.m. local time today, US forces - Afghanistan conducted a strike on an ISIS-K tunnel complex in Achin district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, as part of ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017," US Central Command said in a statement, referring to the ISIS branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISIS-Khorasan.

"The strike used a GBU-43 bomb dropped from a US aircraft," the statement said. "The strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the area while maximizing the destruction of ISIS-K fighters and facilities."

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

Russia, Pakistan, and China have also warned of increasing ISIS activity in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's Nangarhar province borders Pakistan is the border area is hard to control. Google Maps/Christopher Woody

The Central Command statement said US forces "took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties." However, the size and power of the MOAB means damage to the surrounding area can be extensive.

"Dropping a 21,000 lb bomb is not exactly a battle," journalist Jeremy Scahill said on Twitter about the bombing. "It's a mass killing machine."

The MOAB's deployment comes just a few days after a US Special Forces operator was killed in the same region of the country during operations against ISIS.

"The soldier was mortally wounded late Saturday during an operation in Nangarhar Province," US Navy Capt. Bill Salvin said on Twitter on Saturday.

You can see video footage of the MOAB below:

The Taliban has also been resurgent in Afghanistan in recent months, reclaiming territory that US-coalition forces had long fought to hold. In 2016, Afghanistan reportedly lost almost 15% of its territory to Taliban control.

Other important development programs, including education, infrastructure, and women's rights, are reportedly foundering.

Members of the Taliban gather at the site of the execution of three men accused of murdering a couple during a robbery in Ghazni Province. Thomson Reuters

In recent months, civilians have come under fire, both from ISIS and Taliban attacks and from coalition forces. Questions have been raised about how US officials apportion compensation in incidents where Afghan civilians are killed in US-led military operations.

US conduct in Afghanistan has also attracted criticism. The International Criminal Court has said US forces may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan through the "cruel or violent" interrogation of detainees, mostly from 2003 to 2004.

Numerous US military officials have also expressed concern about Russian activity in the country. Afghan officials have said Iran and Pakistan have provided aid to the Taliban.

Opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has steadily increased over the last 15 years. UNODC

Army Gen. Joseph Votel, the chief of US Central Command, has said the war in Afghanistan has settled into a stalemate and that he thought "it will involve additional forces to ensure that we can make the advise-and-assist mission more effective."

The US-led war in Afghanistan will enter its 16th year in 2017. This spring, 300 Marines are scheduled to deploy to the country.

Even after 15 years of occupation, opium cultivation in the country has risen, going up 10% in 2016, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Afghanistan's deputy minister of the interior for counternarcotics said the country's campaign against drugs was failing.

"The government is too busy fighting against terrorism and the Taliban and is losing the battle against drugs," he said in October, "but everything is interconnected."

The US has deployed heavy ordnance in the country before.

In November 2001, during the initial invasion of Afghanistan, the US dropped "daisy cutter" bombs— which weighed 15,000 pounds and were first used to clear helicopter landing zones in the jungles of Vietnam — on Taliban positions.

// var playerParam = { 'pcode': 'BhdmY6l9g002rBhQ6aEBZiheacDu', 'playerBrandingId': '6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e', 'skin': { 'config': '//player.ooyala.com/static/v4/stable/4.4.11/skin-plugin/skin.json' } }; OO.ready(function() { window.pp = OO.Player.create('ooyala-post-container', 'dnbW9yYTE6t9kg_8x7NJBecDjd4otxa9', playerParam); }); //</s>So, more than 15 years later, we’re back to where we were in the very early phase of the post-9/11 war on terror, albeit with a much more widely dispersed enemy straddling at least three countries in the region, as conventional fighting formations, with franchises, in cells small and large, across Asia, the Horn of Africa, Europe and even the Americas, if all it takes to cause havoc is one inspired acolyte.

Essentially this was a replay — although contained to one day and one mother of ordnance, rather than 11 days and multiple strikes — of the late December, 2001, assault on Tora Bora, which reconfigured the landscape, yet failed to kill Osama bin Laden, who escaped to the lawless tribal frontier of Pakistan.

The Hindenburg of bombs dropped over a tunnel complex in a remote mountainous region of Nangarhar Province also took out three large reinforced caves.

I’ve no pity for the death cult of Daesh (also known as Islamic State or ISIS), but this strikes me as stupidly wasteful from a cost-benefit analysis.

As per the casualty numbers thus far provided by Afghanistan’s defense ministry, the cost of taking 36 ISIS militants off the grid on Thursday — blowing their lungs out of their mouths, as described by one expert — stands at $444,444 per kill.

The 22,000-pound monster — the largest non-nuclear ordnance in the American arsenal (although the Russians have apparently tested a bigger one) — explodes just above the ground with massive force, sending a pressure crunch across a vast blast radius. It spews no fragmentation, but will turn bodies anywhere in the vicinity inside-out.

That first-use GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, a/k/a the “mother of all bombs,” had a price tag of $16 million U.S. and a Pentagon development bill of $314 million. The generals say pshaw to that.

Really, there’s no underestimating the lethal imagination of weapons contractors.

Nor is the MOAB the most effective bunker-busting munitions, as other bombs penetrate deep into the ground, capable of scything through metres of concrete before exploding.

So, to what end was it deployed, when according to American military authorities the Islamic State’s fighters in Afghanistan had already been reduced from an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 spread across 11 districts a year ago to about 800 in three districts before hell was unleashed this week? (The attrition was attributable to the intense U.S. air campaign — mostly B-52 strikes, as many as 10 a day in the first two weeks of this month, according to The New York Times — that has been targeting jihadists in Afghanistan.)

If the intent was to put the fear of God in Daesh and weaken its resolve, there’s no evidence they’ll turn tail and run. They live to die. Helping them along only ratchets up their martyrdom bona fides. And the kill-count is puny. (A spokesperson for Nangarhar’s governor yesterday pegged the number of militants vaporized at 82.)

No civilians were hurt. Afghan commandos, according to several reports, had been given notice that the MOAB was coming and pulled about two miles back from the drop point.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been talking out of both sides of his mouth for years. But his outrage over Thursday’s attack is not without merit. “This is not a war on terror, but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as a testing ground for new and dangerous weapons,” he wrote on Twitter. “It is on us, Afghans, to stop the U.S.A.”

President Donald Trump promised a more aggressive war against jihadists. His administration hasn’t enumerated the ways and means. While Trump authorized — without the approval of Congress (amidst heated debate over whether he requires it, as his immediate White House predecessors also acted unilaterally) — last week’s Tomahawk strike on a Syrian air base in retaliation for the regime’s apparent chemical attack against civilians, Trump had, as of Friday, not said whether he personally approved of Thursday’s bombing mission.

We do know this president has extended greater authority to military commanders for military decisions.

I’m unsure which is more alarming: leaving it to the generals or to Trump.

In recent weeks, sloppy strikes have killed civilians in Yemen and coalition allies in northern Syria and Mosul.

It appears dumping the MOAB on war-ravaged Afghanistan had precious little to do with degrading Daesh, and was more a concussive message to North Korea, as that deranged regime girds up for another nuclear test, possibly Saturday.

Pyongyang is intent on building up its nuclear weapons stock. It’s believed to have about 20 nuclear devices in its silos, adding half a dozen yearly, although not yet capable of fitting a nuke into the nose cone of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

With the American aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson U.S. and its strike group (90 aircraft, 300 Tomahawk cruise missiles) making 30-knot progress towards waters off the Korean Peninsula as a bristling show of strength, the potential for catastrophe, intended or not, escalates.

For the first time since the Cold War, probably never so much as the Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear war is, at least, conceivable.

We are dealing with two seriously un-hinged leaders here: Trump and Kim Jong-Un.

The who-blinks-first confrontation has ominous written all over it.

Expecting China to exert sane influence over North Korea seems the stuff of gossamer hopes.

I don’t expect Trump to reveal his hand. I do expect him to say something to the American public, to the world, which might instill a bit of confidence that he has a clue what he’s doing.

Yesterday, Pyongyang threatened a “merciless response” to any US provocation, asserting the country is ready to go to war, if that’s what Trump is bucking for. In a statement provided to CNN, North Korean officials made a chilling vow that the “current grim situation” justified a “self-defensive and pre-emptive strike capabilities with the nuclear force at the core.”</s>Central Command says largest US non-nuclear bomb dropped on caves and bunkers used by ISIL in Afghanistan.

The United States has dropped a massive GBU-43 bomb, the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, in eastern Afghanistan on a series of caves used by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to the Pentagon.

The bomb was dropped on Thursday from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said.

It is the largest non-nuclear bomb the US has ever used in combat.

Also known as the "mother of all bombs," the GBU-43 is a 21,600 9,797 kg GPS-guided munition and was first tested in March 2003, just days before the start of the Iraq war.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a press release that the strike was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the area.

General John Nicholson, the head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said the bomb was used against caves and bunkers used by ISIL in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K.

"As ISIS-K losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense.

"This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K," Nicholson said in a statement.

Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington DC, said the operation was intended to damage ISIL's operational capabilities in Afghanistan and to thwart its capability to attack US and Afghan forces.

"The reason such a large scale weapon was used is that it was difficult to have a precise hit that would penetrate the extensive network of tunnels allowing ISIL to continue their operations," Halkett said.

Halkett said that the bomb was one that had a ripple effect that would send shockwaves into the tunnels.

ISIL's offshoot in Afghanistan, created in 2015, is also known as the "Khorasan Province".

US officials say intelligence suggests ISIL is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province.

Estimates of the group's strength in Afghanistan vary. US officials have said they believe its has only 700 fighters, but Afghan officials estimate it has closer to 1,500.

Western and Afghan security officials believe fighters frequently switch allegiances between armed groups, making it difficult to know who is to blame for violence.</s>The US has dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat in eastern Afghanistan on a series of caves used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, according to the Pentagon.

The GBU-43 bomb was dropped on Thursday from a MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan, said Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Also known as the “mother of all bombs”, the GBU-43 is a 9,797kg GPS-guided munition and was first tested in March 2003, just days before the start of the Iraq war.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strike was designed to minimise the risk to Afghan and US forces conducting clearing operations in the area.

But the ultra-heavy explosive – equal to 11 tonnes of TNT with a blast radius of 1.6km on each side – could potentially cause many civilian casualties.

The non-nuclear bomb killed at least 36 fighters and destroyed a deep tunnel complex of ISIL, Afghan officials said on Friday, ruling out any civilian casualties.

“As a result of the bombing, key Daesh [ISIL] hideouts and deep tunnel complex were destroyed and 36 IS fighters were killed,” the defence ministry said of the strike.

The bomb landed in the Momand Dara area of Achin district, according to Esmail Shinwari, the local governor.

“The explosion was the biggest I have ever seen. Towering flames engulfed the area,” Shinwari told AFP news agency.

General John Nicholson, the head of US and international forces in Afghanistan, said the bomb was used against caves and bunkers used by ISIL in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K.

“As ISIS-K losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defence, he said.

“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K”.

ISIL’s offshoot in Afghanistan, created in 2015, is also known as the Khorasan Province.

Mark Kimmitt, a retired brigadier-general in the US army and former deputy assistant secretary of defence, played down the use of the GBU-43, saying it is “just another tool the military has”.

“It allows us to go after deeply buried and hardened structures. It’s good use against tunnels and it’s also good use because it’s going to set off IEDs in the area,” he told Al Jazeera.

Kimmitt said it was not at all certain that “political authorities” were informed of the raid before it was carried out.

“Although the size of the bomb was a bit larger than normal, it was a routine military mission against a routine military target,” he said.

The White House would not confirm whether or not President Donald Trump had authorised the use of the bomb.

“Everybody knows exactly what happened and what I do is I authorise my military,” Trump told reporters.

“We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done their job as usual. So, we have given them total authorisation.”

US officials say intelligence suggests ISIL is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province, among tens of thousands of civilians.

US officials have said they believe the group has only 700 fighters, but Afghan officials estimate there are closer to 1,500 in the country.

Western and Afghan security officials believe fighters frequently switch allegiances between armed groups, making it difficult to know who is to blame for violence.

Peter Galbraith, a former US diplomat and former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan, said ISIL would have to be targeted in different locations for the US military strategy to succeed.

“ISIL doesn’t concentrate its forces … so you have to target it in many different places,” he told Al Jazeera.

He said conditions for military operations in ISIL’s Syrian and Iraqi strongholds, Raqqa and Mosul, are different, as they are urban areas with civilian populations.

“A bomb of this magnitude could cause a lot of collateral damage,” Galbraith said.

“But when you’re using it in a remote, rural part of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, you presumably can have some confidence that you’ll not have civilian casualties, or at least not many of them.”</s>This image made from a Thursday, April 13, 2017 video released by the U.S. Department of Defense shows a plume of smoke rising from a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb strike on an Islamic State militant cave and tunnel systems in the Achin district of the Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with the largest non-nuclear weapon every used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said. (U.S. Department of Defense via AP)</s>The US Air Force has dropped the 'largest ever non-nuclear bomb' targeting ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb — nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs" (MOAB) — was dropped in at 7pm local time today (4pm UK time).

The Pentagon confirmed the strike was carried out by Air Force Special Operations Command using a 21,000lb weapon - and every precaution was taken to avoid civilians casualties.

The army targeted an cave complex in the Achin district of Nangarhar province after a US special forces 'Green Beret' was killed fighting the terror group in the country, according to Fox News.

The bomb had to be "kicked" out the back of a US Air Force MC-130 cargo plane due to its colossal size, according to the military sources.

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

It is believed to be the first time the bomb has been used in the battlefield and the military is currently assessing the damage.

The bomb was first developed during the Iraq War and is intended to target large below-surface areas.

General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of the bomb, according to the sources.

"As [ISIS'] losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," General Nicholson said in a statement.

"This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]."

A series of tests show the terrifying force of the bomb as it was dropped into water in 2003.

During a press conference yesterday, US President Donald Trump said he plans to send his national security adviser H.R. McMaster to Afghanistan.

He said: "It’s my hope that NATO will take on an increased role in supporting our Iraqi partners in their battle against ISIS.

"I'm also sending General McMaster to Afghanistan to find out how we can make progress alongside our Afghan partners and NATO allies."</s>ISIS fighters have lost 36 people as a result of the US strike against their base in Afghanistan. Key cashes of terrorists and a complex of tunnels have also been destroyed. As the Afghan Defence Ministry reported, there were no victims among peaceful civilians.

The US claimed overnight that the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast has been used operationally for the first time in Afghanistan. The bomb is also known as the Mother of All Bombs. As they said in the Pentagon, the strike was carried out on the Achin region of the Nangarhar province Thursday. The aim was ISIS fighters and system of tunnels they used.

The US President Donald Trump said the strike was a very successful mission.

Meanwhile former CIA agent Edward Snowden revealed what the Americans bombed in Afghanistan in reality. According to him, they struck tunnels building of which was funded by the US. The New York Times has also written that construction of the base for Mujahideen had been funded by the CIA.
The United States Air Force drops the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, reportedly on an ISIL complex of tunnels and caves. This is the first use of the weapon on the battlefield.