MOAB

Update: Body Count Of Dead ISIS Fighters Nears 100 After MOAB Strike, by Milmot Proviso, 4/17/17

The so-called “Mother of All Bombs” has certainly earned its moniker, at least if the latest Islamic State group death tolls from last week’s MOAB attack in Afghanistan is any indication.

According to a report in Sunday’s Wall Street Journal, Afghan military officials said that nearly 100 bodies had been pulled from the complex of tunnels hit by the largest non-nuclear bomb in America’s arsenal in last week’s attack.

CNN reported the death toll at 94 as of Saturday. However, Afghan officials said that the death toll was likely to rise. The “Mother of All Bombs” is the colloquial name for the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast.

According to Fox News, at a staggering 21,000 pounds, it certainly earns the nickname; it was so large it actually had to be kicked out the back of the C-130 that dropped it on the Achin district of Nangarhar Province, an area of Afghanistan on the Pakistani border.

The bomb was designed to penetrate bunkers and tunnels — important since, as The Daily Caller reported, the Islamic State group leadership in Afghanistan had retreated to a tunnel complex that was very difficult for troops to penetrate.

The “Mother of All Bombs” explodes not when it hits the ground, but six feet above it. That means that the blast goes downwards instead of radiating from the site of the blast, collapsing tunnels and caves below the surface.

“This was the first time that we encountered an extensive obstacle to our progress,” Gen. John Nicholson, the top military general in Afghanistan, said on Friday. “It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield.”

While there is some controversy over the use of the MOAB, Nicholson was right — it was the correct weapon for the correct circumstance. One can only hope that the Islamic State group gets the message.

Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you think using the MOAB was the right thing to do.

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