The actual name of this bomb is Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) but it has long since been known as the Mother of All Bombs because it is the largest non-nuclear weapon the U.S. has produced. Today it was dropped in Afghanistan, the first time the bomb has ever been used in combat. From CNN:
The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, according to the military sources.
They said the target was an ISIS tunnel and cave complex as well as personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.
CBS News reports the plan to drop the bomb has been in the works for months:
“The strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. Forces conducting clearing operations in the area while maximizing the destruction of ISIS-K fighters and facilities,” the Pentagon said in a statement, using the term for the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch…
The Afghanistan strike had been in the works for a number of months, [CBS News’ David] Martin reports. The weapon was brought into Afghanistan specifically for this mission.
This map shows the location where the bomb was dropped:
BTW, I read some other accounts in the Slimes and elsewhere where they mention using multiple 15,000lb daisycutter bombs against some portions of this same cave system.
So using the 21,000lb MOAB wasn't such a big step up from what we attacked the cave/tunnel system with over 10 years ago.
it is a shame their expertise is such that they have to use munitions such as this to kill a few terrorists, sort of provides the case for chemical weapons desn't it
It isn't bad that we condemn gas weapons so forcefully.
It's far too easy to use them on hostile or undesirable civilians, not just a military enemy. As we know, gas has been used to kill hundreds of times as many civilians as military (since the Nazis ran the score way up).
