Tag: Afghanistan

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Video: Drone Footage Of “Mother Of All Bombs”

Silent video footage, shot by a drone during the dropping of the “mother of all bombs” yesterday in Afghanistan by the U.S., shows the massive impact and range of the GBU-43/B.

According to reports, no civilians were hurt in the bombing – only a base used to launch attacks and a “tunnels complex” were destroyed, along with 36 ISIS militants.

The bomb, the largest non-nuclear in the U.S. arsenal, is dropped via Air Force planes and detonated before hitting ground which results in an enormous blast radius.

Watch below.

(source)

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U.S. Drops Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb In Afghanistan

From CNN:

The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission.

A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” was dropped at 7:32 pm local time Thursday, the sources said. A MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb.

The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, stationed in Afghanistan and operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told CNN.

Officials said the target was an ISIS cave and tunnel complex and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.

“The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space, which we did,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said later Thursday. The strike “targeted a system of tunnels and cave that ISIS fighters use to move around freely.”

The military is currently assessing the damage. Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of the bomb, according to the sources. The authority to deploy the weapon was granted to Nicholson by the commander of US Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, Stump said.

This is the first time a MOAB has been used in the battlefield, according to the US officials. This munition was developed during the Iraq War.

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Trump Spokesperson: Obama Started The Afghanistan War

As we all know, the U.S. war in Afghanistan began October 7, 2001, when President George W. Bush launched what was then known as “Operation Enduring Freedom” with the UK.

That war lasted 13 years, 2 months and 3 weeks, until December 28, 2014, NATO formally ended combat operations in Afghanistan.

Now that we have actual history facts out of the way, someone please send this information to Donald Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson who appeared on CNN today and told the world that President Obama “took the U.S. into Afghanistan.”

The comment came as Pierson was trying to explain that Donald Trump’s “sarcastic/not so sarcastic” remarks about Obama being the “founder of ISIS.

From Mediaite:

Remember how Pierson blamed Obama for Captain Humayun Khan‘s death in 2004?

Well, on CNN this morning, as she was arguing with anchor Victor Blackwell about Trump’s “founder of ISIS” remark, Pierson actually said, “Remember, we weren’t even in Afghanistan by this time. Barack Obama went into Afghanistan, creating another problem.”

Blackwell asked, “You’re saying Barack Obama took the country into Afghanistan post-2009?” Pierson said, “That was Obama’s war, yes.”

To be honest, I don’t know which is more shocking – Pierson’s woeful understanding of history or the fact that she actually gets paid to represent a presidential candidate.

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Large majority supports ending war in Afghanistan by 2014

Last week Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that the U.S. and its allies are hoping to scale back from taking the lead in combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of next year.

While the announcement caused quite a stir in the media, Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno noted that it “has been our strategy all along.”

Nevertheless, a new poll out today found that, by a large margin, Americans support it. According to Rasmussen, 67% favor the plan Panetta outlined last week, while only 22% opposed ending combat operations by that time.