Several mid-level Isis commanders reportedly among dead after Moab strike ordered by Trump on complex in Nangarhar province

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

More than 90 Islamic State militants were killed when the US military dropped an 11-ton bomb on eastern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan government.

The US military has not released a casualty toll and declined to comment on the Afghan numbers. “We are still conducting our assessment,” it said.



'It felt like the heavens were falling': Afghans reel from Moab impact Read more

The US deployed the largest conventional bomb it has ever used in combat on 13 April, striking a complex of tunnels and bunkers used by Isis militants in Achin district in Nangarhar province.



After the bombing, US and Afghan forces conducted clearing operations and airstrikes in the area and assessed the damage.



The bodies of the militants were found around the blast site. Security forces are reportedly still trying to access the actual target of the attack, making it possible that the body count could rise. Several mid-level Isis commanders are said to be among the dead.

“After the bomb, when we checked the tunnels, we took out around 100 dead bodies. They all died in the bombing,” said Mohammad Radmanesh, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defence.

The district governor of Achin, Ismail Shinwari, said security forces had recovered 92 bodies, none of them civilians.

Residents living up to two miles from the blast site told the Guardian that the explosion had broken windows and cracked walls in their homes.

The bombing followed an extensive US campaign, waged for more than a year, to rid eastern Afghanistan of militants who have sworn loyalty to Isis. It is estimated there are fewer than 1,000, most of them based in remote mountain districts.

Individual militants have conducted a string of atrocities in Kabul, killing more than 100 members of the country’s Shia minority in attacks that were later claimed by official Isis media channels.

Isis is a much smaller fighting force than the Taliban, which is gaining ground in Afghanistan and is currently poised at the edge of several provincial capitals.



The US has dedicated a lot of military power to eradicating Isis’s presence in the country. Its warplanes released 1,337 weapons over Afghanistan last year, a 40% increase from 2015. The spike was largely a result of increased military efforts in the east, where Isis groups are based.

In February and March of this year, the US conducted more than 400 airstrikes in Afghanistan.



The GBU-43/B or Moab, known as the “mother of all bombs”, is the largest non-nuclear bomb the US has deployed in war.



Speaking after the attack, 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 Kabul government applauded the strike, with the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, saying it was a joint operation by Afghan and international troops. But some officials voiced concern. Ghani’s special envoy to Pakistan, Omar Zakhilwal, called the attack “reprehensible and counterproductive”.

Speaking to the Guardian, the mayor of Achin, where the attack took place, questioned the necessity of such a large-scale strike against a relatively small militant group.