\u201cThis was the right weapon for the right target,\u201d<\/em> General John Nicholson said during a news conference in Kabul on Friday.<\/p>\n The GBU-43 bomb, referred to as the \u201cmother of all bombs\u201d<\/em> by the US military, was dropped from an MC-130 aircraft in the Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar on Thursday.<\/p>\n The US says it was dropped on its intended target, a \u201ctunnel complex\u201d<\/em> used by ISIS-K, the Afghanistan affiliate of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS\/ISIL).<\/p>\n \u201cThe GBU-43 is designed to destroy caves and tunnels which ISIS-K have been using along with extensive belts of IEDs to thicken their positions against our offensive. The enemy used these tunnels and mine fields to move around the battlefield and protect themselves from the attacks from Afghan and US forces,\u201d<\/em> Nicholson said.<\/p>\n Fox host: Dropping MOAB is “what freedom looks like, that’s the red, white, and blue.” \u2014 Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n He went on to say that the weapon had been \u201cvery effective\u201d<\/em> in eliminating the targeted \u201csanctuary.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The general said there is \u201cno evidence\u201d<\/em> of the bomb causing any civilian casualties.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had persistent surveillance over the area before, during, and after the operation,\u201d<\/em> Nicholson said.<\/p>\n Afghan officials said the bomb killed 36 IS fighters, while confirming that no civilians had been hurt in the operation. IS has denied that their fighters were killed, according to their Amaq propaganda outlet.<\/p>\n When asked about the timing of the operation, Nicholson said it was simply conducted when the tunnels were encountered.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first time we encountered an extensive obstacle to our progress that was constituted by the belts of IEDs, the presence of tunnels and caves… so that is all there is to the timing,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n Stressing the \u201cbrutality\u201d<\/em> of Islamic State, Nicholson cited the terrorist group\u2019s crimes, including dragging elders out of their homes and beheading them in front of their families. Other elders have been forced to kneel on explosives before being blown up, according to the general.<\/p>\n He went on to say that IS has \u201cmurdered male family members, kidnapped their wives and daughters, and forced them to marry their fighters. Daesh (IS) has sent suicide bombers to attack peaceful demonstrations and have killed and wounded hundreds of innocent civilians.”<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n \u201cThey have sent suicide bombers into mosques and murdered people during their prayer. And just last month they shot and stabbed hospital patients lying in their beds,\u201d<\/em> he said, while calling IS terrorists \u201canimals\u201d<\/em> and \u201cbarbaric terrorists.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Nicholson stressed that the Afghan army is leading the fight against the terrorists, and that the US is \u201ccommitted to Afghanistan in this fight.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe are united with the Afghan government to prevent terrorists from establishing safe havens in Afghanistan,\u201d<\/em> he said, adding that the US had coordinated with Kabul in conducting Thursday\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n The general vowed that the US will not let up in its fight to eliminate the terrorist group from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be clear: we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our Afghan comrades to destroy ISIS-K in 2017,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has praised the operation, saying he is \u201cvery, very proud\u201d<\/em> of the military\u2019s \u201csuccessful job.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Not everyone shares Trump\u2019s enthusiasm, however. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has slammed the bombing in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not the war on terror, but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as a testing ground for new and dangerous weapons,\u201d<\/em> Karzai said in a tweet.<\/p>\n I vehemently and in strongest words condemn the dropping of the latest weapon, the largest non-nuclear #bomb<\/a>, on Afghanistan by US…1\/2<\/p>\n \u2014 Hamid Karzai (@KarzaiH) April 13, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n 2\/2 military. This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and dangerous…<\/p>\n \u2014 Hamid Karzai (@KarzaiH) April 13, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n 2\/3 weapons. It is upon us,Afghans, to stop the #USA<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Hamid Karzai (@KarzaiH) April 13, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n NSA whistleblower\u00a0Edward Snowden also sent out a tweet to say that the US had paid for the tunnel networks it is now bombing.<\/p>\n Others on social media also weighed<\/a> in following news of the bombing, with many noting that the cost of the expensive explosion could have paid for public services such as Meals on Wheels, whose budget is being cut by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US\u2019 top military commander in Afghanistan has defended his decision to drop the \u2018mother of all bombs\u2019 on an Islamic State target, calling it \u201cthe right weapon.\u201d He said the US will \u201cnot relent\u201d in its goal to \u201cdestroy\u201d the terrorist group. \u201cThis was the right weapon for the right target,\u201d General John Nicholson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Geraldo: It’s one of my favorite things to watch. pic.twitter.com\/E5X2lmTnSE<\/a><\/p>\nUnited against \u2018animals\u2019\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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