‘That’s all there is to the timing’: The U.S. Mother Of All Bombs that killed 36 ISIS militants and took out IED belts, tunnels and caves in Afghanistan was simply ‘the best weapon to clear an obstacle’ in offensive against 20 terror groups, says Pentagon

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The Mother Of All Bombs that obliterated 36 ISIS militants and a rat-nest network of tunnels and caves was 'the best weapon to clear an obstacle' in an ongoing offensive against 20 terror groups in Afghanistan.

After dropping the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat in Eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon has confirmed it received no orders to flex military muscle and that it had been merely a decision taken on the ground.

The bomb has been given the nickname the 'mother of all bombs', a play on MOAB which is an acronym standing for Massive Ordnance Air Burst, and weighs a staggering 21,000lbs. 

It was dropped at 7.32pm local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Achin district of Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group has been operating close to the Pakistani border.

President Donald Trump called it a 'very, very successful mission' and some Afghan residents have welcomed the blast and even called for more.

There were no civilian casualties, according to the Ministry of Defense statement, which also said that several ISIS caves and ammunition caches were destroyed. 

The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, unleashes 11 tons of explosives and vaporises anything within its 300m blast zone. 

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That MOAB's first practical test was carried out on March 11, 2003 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and the plume of smoke is pictured here

General John Nicholson, who heads US Forces Afghanistan, said: 'The soldiers have already resumed their offensive as they continue to press south into these ISIS cave sanctuaries.'

A member of Afghanistan's special forces unit keeps watch in Achin district of Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan on April 14, 2017, a day after the blast that killed 36 ISIS militants 

General John Nicholson speaks at a press conference following the deployment of the Mother of All Bombs in Afghanistan

An Afghan special forces soldier points his gun towards the enemy lines in Achin district of Nangarhar province, in eastern Afghanistan, where the US Air Force dropped the 21,600lbs 'mother of all bombs'

 John Nicholson listens to a question at a press conference during which he said his soldiers were fighting 20 terror groups in Afghanistan

The military used a GBU-43 (pictured), which weighs a staggering 21,600 pounds, and has earned the moniker 'Mother Of All Bombs

General John Nicholson, who heads US Forces Afghanistan, said: 'The soldiers have already resumed their offensive as they continue to press south into these ISIS cave sanctuaries. 

'This entire offensive, not just the use of one weapon, shows the commitment to defeat ISIS in Afghanistan this year. 

'It's one we encountered on the battlefield.

'Since early March we have been conducting offensive operations in Southern Nangarhar, but this was the first time we encountered an extensive obstacle to our progress which compromised of IED belts, tunnels and caves.

'This was the best weapon to use to remove that obstacle and allow us to continue with our offensive operations into Southern Nangarhar.

Commander of the Resolute Support mission and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan General John W Nicholson leaves a press conference

'That is all there is to the timing.

'It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the ground.' 

It has also emerged the US and its Allied forces are not only battling ISIS militants, but 20 terror groups in the area who have been known to work together. 

General Nicholson said: 'The reason we think the whole world needs to be focused on Afghanistan is the potential convergence of different terror groups in this area.

'We have seen evidence of 20 different designated terror organisations in Afghanistan and Pakistan and from time to time we see the members cooperate between different groups and this is a grave concern for us.' 

Afghanistan officials confirmed the attack left 36 Islamic State group fighters dead and that damage was caused to the underground terror network. 

It is understood they are the same type of tunnels and caves once used by Osama bin Laden to move from Afghanistan to Pakistan in an attempt to evade capture by coalition forces. 

Hakim Khan, 50, a resident of Achin district where the attack took place, said: 'I want 100 times more bombings on this group.' 

US officials estimate 600 to 800 ISIS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar, and the attack was seen as a direct offensive against the group.

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.

Achin District Governor Esmail Shinwari said the bomb landed in the Momand Dara area.

'The explosion was the biggest I have ever seen. Towering flames engulfed the area,' Shinwari said yesterday.

'We don't know anything about the casualties so far, but since it is an ISIS stronghold we think a lot of fighters may have been killed.'

US Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for US Forces Afghanistan, said 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 ISIS while preventing civilian casualties.'

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai used Twitter to condemn the weapon's use.

'I vehemently and in strongest words condemn the dropping of the latest weapon, the largest non-nuclear bomb, on Afghanistan by US military,' he said.

'This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous weapons.'

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had authorized his military commanders to take actions like the one put into play on Thursday

The MOAB being tested back in 2003 by the US Air Force

A general view of Achin district, in Jalalabad, after US forces dropped the bomb in Afghanistan targeting a complex network of ISIS caves and tunnels

Huge: The MOAB test fired in 2003 shortly before final preparations for it to be loaded onto an MC-130 attack aircraft

General Nicholson, who heads US Forces Afghanistan, described the weapon as the 'right munition' to reduce ISIS obstacles and maintain the momentum against jihadists in the region.

The strike hit a system of tunnels and caves that IS 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 IS 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.

A crater left by the blast is believed to be more than 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide after it exploded six feet above the ground. Anyone at the blast site was vaporized.

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he was 'very, very proud' and called the operation 'really another successful job. We're very, very proud of our military.'

The Pentagon is denying that the attack was a revenge strike despite the fact that it came in the same area of Afghanistan where a Green Beret soldier was killed on Saturday.

Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar of the 7th Special Forces Group was cut down by enemy small arms fire while his unit was conducting counter-ISIS operations. 

Trump suggested he had not personally ordered the bomb strike but delegated authority to commanders in the field.

'Everybody knows exactly what happened. So, what I do is I authorize my military ... We have given them total authorization,' he said.

The move marks the fulfilment of a 17-month-old campaign promise Trump delivered in Iowa, when he scoffed at ISIS terror forces and said he 'would bomb the s**t out of them' if he became president.

It also comes at a moment in the young Trump presidency when tensions are rising with Russia over its role in Syria, where ISIS has its headquarters.

 The MOAB was pushed out the back door of a giant cargo plane on Thursday, flying to its target with GPS guidance. A MOAB has only been exploded once before - in a 2003 test

Mushroom cloud: This was the aftermath of the test explosion seen outside Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Then-candidate Donald Trump told an Iowa audience in November 2015 that he would fight ISIS from the air as president: 'I would bomb the s**t out of them'

The explosion will also send a saber-rattling message to North Korea and Iran that rogue states' nuclear-weapons ambitions could be met with brute force.  

Trump said of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un: 'I don't know if this sends a message. It doesn't make any difference if it does or not.'

The Department of Defense is denying that Thursday's attack was revenge for Saturday's death of Green Beret sergeant Mark De Alencar in the same region of Afghanistan

'North Korea's a problem. The problem will be taken care of.'

White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that MOAB is 'a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon' whose use was intended to collapse underground spaces used by ISIS terrorists to move freely and attack U.S. and allied troops.

'The United States takes the fight against ISIS seriously, and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space – which we did,' Spicer said.

He referred reporters' questions to the Pentagon and ignored a shouted question about whether Trump had been aware the bomb was dropped before or during the military operation.

Trump said during a November 2015 campaign rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa that ISIS was 'making a tremendous amount of money' because of 'certain areas of oil that they took away' after the Obama administration withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

'They have some in Syria, some in Iraq. I would bomb the s**t out of them,' he said to wild cheers. 

'I would just bomb those suckers. That's right. I'd blow up the pipes. ... I'd blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left.' 

HOW THE MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS KILLS PEOPLE: VAPORIZED BODIES, CRUSHED INTERNAL ORGANS AND SUFFOCATED TO DEATH

The GBU-43, otherwise known as the Mother of All Bombs, or MOAB unleashes a devastating fireball that incinerates anything within 30 feet when it first detonates.

In the milliseconds following the initial blast, all the oxygen would have been sucked out of the tunnels and for hundreds of feet around, literally sucking the life out of terrorists, suffocating them as their lungs imploded.

Then, in a flash the fiery shockwave would have blasted outwards at the speed of sound for up to a mile, causing huge concussive injuries to anyone caught in its path, essentially smashing them to death, while at the same time leveling buildings and trees.

Ears would have been left bleeding and internal organs battered by the staggering force of the blast.

Anyone caught inside the tunnels would have been crushed as the force of 19,000 pounds of highly complex explosives caused them to collapse on the ISIS terrorists.

Anyone left alive would have been shocked and left in awe by the ferocity of the blast - the psychological scars staying with them forever. 

The Pentagon estimates that up to 800 ISIS soldiers were in the area at the time of the blast. 

Its frightening  power was unleashed by the United States for the first time on Thursday when it was dropped on an ISIS camp in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, in order to obliterate underground tunnels used by the terrorists.

A crater left by the blast is believed to be more than 300 feet wide after it exploded just six feet above the ground. Anyone at the blast site was vaporized.

The energy released by the nearly 19,000 pounds of highly complex explosive, would have caused a barometric shock wave known as 'overpressure' that moves at the speed of sound away from ground zero.

Classed as a thermobaric bomb - 'thermo' for heat and 'baric' for pressure, the MOAB features a two stage detonation powered by H6 explosive which contains powdered aluminum.

The first blast detonates and spreads highly flammable aluminum dust and the second is the baric blast - which literally sucks oxygen out from cave tunnels before rapidly becoming an expanding shock wave.

Both the implosion and the blast wave cause massive internal damage to anyone who has not been already been incinerated by the detonation, with most injuries to hollow organs such as the ears, lungs and stomach.

Anyone in the tunnels who did not have the life sucked out them would have then been crushed to death by the sheer force of the explosion. 

MOAB: The Mother of All Bombs - otherwise known as the GBU-43 would obliterate most of Times Square with a yield blast of 0.011 KT

Sheer power: The effects of a MOAB detonation are explained below - 1: FireBall - 2 - Air Blast - 3 - Continuing Air Blast and 4 - Burn injuries 

1: The MOAB would technically explode as an airburst weapon, albeit from six-feet and not thousands, like a nuclear bomb. 

2: As the bomb ignites the alumimum dust and nearly 19,000 pounds of explosives a shock wave sucks the air from another 160-feet of prime Manhattan real estate and destroying Broadway. Concrete buildings are severely damaged and fatalities are also close to 100 percent here.

3: The dissipated air blast continues on to more than 300-feet, damaging more residential buildings and causing injury to anyone caught up in the blast and more fatalities.

4: People up to 330-feet away from Ground Zero would suffer 3rd degree burns and some would suffer the loss of their limbs. 

 

 Key stats:

• Known as the 'Mother Of All Bombs'
• The U.S. military's largest non-nuclear weapon
• Each bomb costs around $16 million (£12.8 million)
• Its explosion is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT and the blast radius is a mile wide
• First tested by US forces in 2003
• It is designed to destroy heavily reinforced targets or to shatter ground forces and armour across a large area
• 30 feet (9 meters) long and 40 inches (1 meter) wide
• Weighs 21,000lbs (9,500kg) – heavier than the Hiroshima nuclear bomb 
• Leaves no lasting radiation effect 

How it's deployed:

• The bomb has 'grid' fins that fold into the body and then open up in flight to help control its descent
• It can only be deployed out of the back of a large cargo plane due to its size
• The bomb rides on a pallet, a parachute pulls the pallet and bomb out of the plane
• The pallet then separates so that the bomb can fall to its target
• It accelerates rapidly to its terminal velocity and is partially guided to its target via satellite
• It explodes six feet (1.8 meters) above the ground
• The idea behind this 'airburst' mechanism is to spread its destructive range

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Preparations: This was the scene as the only other MOAB to be exploded was readied for action in 2003 in Florida. The tail rotor is part of the guidance system for it to exploded over a specified target

A specialized MC-130 'Hercules' cargo aircraft released the weapon at 7pm local time.

It was too big to drop from a traditional bomb-bay door or release from an aircraft wing, so 'we kicked it out the back door,' a US official told Fox News.

The weapon's sheer power produces a blast that can be felt miles away, largely because of its construction.

Engineers used an unusually thin aluminum skin to encase MOAB's payload, in order to avoid a thicker steel frame interfering with the impact on a target.

The U.S. fast-tracked the MOAB in 2003 for use in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but the Defense Department later decided that the enemy provided too little resistance to justify its deployment. 

It was available to the Obama administration throughout the former president's entire two terms, but he never deployed it in combat. 

Its first practical test was carried out on March 11, 2003 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. 

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that the explosive colossus was dropped in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, making it the first time America's largest non-nuclear weapon has been used in a combat situation. 

Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said it was the first ever combat use of the bomb, which contains 11 tons of explosives. 

Stump said the bomb was dropped on a cave complex believed to be used by ISIS fighters in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, very close to the border with Pakistan.

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement about ISIS that 'as ISIS-K's 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].'

News reports suggest Nicholson made the decision to drop it from the sky.

He added that '[t]he 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 ISIS faction in Afghanistan is known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria-Khorasan province, or ISIS-K.  

The weapon carries a blast wave that can be felt more than a mile away