US Drops ‘Mother of All Bombs’ in Afghanistan

Introduction

According to the latest news available in the public domain, the United States (US) forces have dropped what the defense analysts call as ‘Mother of All Bombs’ in Afghanistan. This was disclosed by the sources close to the ground forces operating in this war-torn country. The sources say that the said bomb was used to blast the ISIS tunnels in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, bordering Pakistan. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is expected to talk about this development in his upcoming brief. In this blog post, let us see what has prompted the US to drop this bulky bomb in Afghanistan.

Understanding ‘Mother of All Bombs’

The explosive device used this time in Afghanistan is the largest non-nuclear device in the US Air Force arsenal. This was reported by the reputed news gatherers in the globe, as quoted by the US ground forces operating in Afghanistan.  This precision-guided device was developed in 2003 by US Air Force. It belongs to the GBU-43 class of bomb that uses the Global Positioning System (GPS) to precisely hit the target. This bulky explosive device was code named as MOAB, which stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast. In the defense quarters, MOAB is fondly called as the ‘Mother of All Bombs’. The total weight of this explosive device is 21,000 pounds. It is for the first time the US Air Force is using this bulky ordnance. According to the defense analysts, this device is a ‘concussive weapon’ that does not penetrate the ground. Instead, MOAB destroys tunnels and a large surface area.

Likely Impact

As told above, this bomb creates a huge shockwave, apart from a huge fireball, over a large surface area. Though the impact seen from above will be minimal at the surface, it completely pulverizes the underground tunnels and bunkers, thereby making them useless in the future. Hence, it is the most optimal arsenal to use against the terror groups. Due to its precision nature, the collateral damage would be minimal, the defense sources privy to this development claimed. The blast impact would cover a radius of 300 meters. The shock impact was felt even in the neighboring Pakistani province as well. This bombing is expected to impede the free movement of terrorists through this tunnel without getting noticed.

Reason for Afghan Bombing

It was dropped in Nangarhar province in this war-torn country, bordering the eastern region of Pakistan.  The attack was launched in an area where the US ground forces had faced small arms firing when they were searching there to flush out the ISIS militants and destroy their targets. As a result of this Saturday firing, one US Green Beret was killed. This Afghan province has been in the limelight for all wrong reasons, as it has become the operational base of terrorist groups like al Qaeda, Haqqani Network and ISIS (Afghan branch). Even the Osama Bin Laden chose this region to hide from the public glare after the infamous 9/11 terror attacks.