At least 90 Islamic State militants were killed in Afghanistan by the “mother of all bombs” dropped by the US military, Afghan officials have said.
The GBU-43/B targeted an Isis mountain complex on Thursday in remote eastern Nangarhar province, engulfing the area in flames and causing a large mushroom cloud.
Esmail Shinwari, the governor of Achin district, where the weapon was dropped, said: “At least 92 Daesh [Isis] fighters were killed in the bombing.”
Attaullah Khogyani, a provincial spokesman in Nangarhar, said 90 people were killed, a figure far higher than the initial death toll of 36 Isis militants given by Afghan officials.
Shinwari said there were “no military and civilian casualties at all”, and that Afghan commandos and US troops were carrying out cleanup operations in the area on Saturday.
Security experts believe Isis built their redoubts close to civilian homes, but the Afghan government says thousands of people have fled the area in recent months.
The GBU-43/B, which has an explosive yield of more than 11 tons of TNT, was used after fighting had intensified over the past week and US-backed ground forces struggled to advance on the area. A US special forces soldier was killed last Saturday in Nangarhar during an operation against Isis.
Gen John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said: “The enemy had created bunkers, tunnels and extensive minefields, and this weapon was used to reduce those obstacles so that we could continue our offensive in Nangarhar.”
The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, said the attack was “designed to support the efforts of the Afghan national security forces and US forces conducting clearance operations in the region”.
The bombing came a week after Donald Trump ordered missile strikes against Syria after a chemical attack believed to have been carried out by Bashar al-Assad’s forces, and as China warned of the potential for conflict as tensions between the US and North Korea rise.
Trump hailed the mission in Achin district as “very, very successful”, but some analysts called the action disproportionate.
Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington said: “The Trump administration made a lot of noise with this bomb, but the general state of play on the ground remains the same. The Taliban continues to wage a formidable and ferocious insurgency. Isis, by comparison, is a sideshow.
“Still, from a strategic standpoint, there is an unsettling takeaway here. The US pulled off a huge shock and awe mission against an enemy that isn’t even the top threat to the US in Afghanistan. The Taliban continues to sit pretty.”
The Taliban is a larger militant group in Afghanistan than Isis, although the latter has made inroads into the country in recent years.
