Site of huge US bomb has few clues
Print Edition
THE remote site in eastern Afghanistan where the US military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb to be deployed in combat earlier this month bears signs of the weapon’s power, but little evidence of how much material and human damage it inflicted.
Reuters photos and video — some of the first images from journalists allowed to get close to the site — reveal a scarred mountainside, burned trees and some ruined mud-brick structures.
They do not offer any clues as to the number of casualties or their identities.
Since the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb was dropped on a fortified tunnel complex used by suspected Islamic State fighters in Nangarhar province, access to the site has been controlled by US forces who are battling the militant group alongside Afghan troops.
The US military has said that ongoing fighting had prevented media or independent investigators from visiting the site, and Afghan soldiers said special forces from both countries were still engaging the enemy in the area.
A Reuters witness viewed the site from several hundred meters away, because of what troops he was accompanying said were continued threats in the area.
While the 9,797-kilogram GBU-43 is billed as the US military’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb, its destructive power, equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, pales in comparison with the relatively small atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
They had blasts equivalent to between 15,000 and 20,000 tons of TNT.
Within a few hundred feet of the apparent blast site, leaves remained intact on trees, belying initial expectations the explosion may have sent a destructive blast wave over 1.5 kilometers.
Afghan officials have said nearly 100 militants and no civilians were killed, but the remoteness of the area, the presence of Islamic State fighters, and, more recently, American security forces, has left those claims unverified.
US commanders said the bomb was used to target a tunnel complex and destroy land mines and other booby traps laid by Islamic State militants.
No obvious crater or bodies were visible at the scene, according to the Reuters witness.
Several hundred meters from the strike, Afghan soldiers explored a tunnel dug beneath a home.
The entrance in the home descended into tunnels large enough for a person to stand in, strung with electric cables and light bulbs and strewn with rugs, cushions and men’s clothes.
One cave was said to have once held prisoners, but was unused at the time of the strike, according to soldiers at the scene.
The strike came as President Donald Trump declared a focus on Islamic State.
In March, US forces conducted 79 “counter-terror strikes” against Islamic State in Nangarhar, killing as many as 200 militants, according to the US military command in Kabul.
US military officials estimate there are about 600 to 800 Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar, but also in the neighboring province of Kunar.
Taliban militants, meanwhile, remain the dominant insurgent group in Afghanistan.
A Taliban attack on a large Afghan army headquarters in the north of the country on Friday killed more than 140 soldiers.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
