U.S. drops “mother of all bombs” – Trump says he gave “his” military “total authorization”
In eastern Afghanistan Thursday evening, U.S. forces deployed the most powerful conventional munition in the country’s arsenal, second only to a nuclear bomb, targeting a series of caves used by ISIS fighters the Achin district of Nangarhar province. FSRN’s Nell Abram has more.
The GBU43/B is a 30-foot long, more than 21,000-pound Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB. It’s also known as “the mother of all bombs,” and had never before been used in combat.
It’s unclear if President Trump was aware of the decision to drop the enormous bomb before it happened. After a White House event Thursday, a pool reporter asked Trump: “Did you authorize it, Sir?”
Trump replied: “Everybody knows exactly what happened. So. and, what I do is, I authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world and they have done a job as usual. So, we have given them total authorization.”
Thirty-six people linked to ISIS reportedly died in the strike, so far there’s no word on any civilian casualties caused by the bomb’s potentially 1-mile radius blast.
