The Kabul government has defended the dropping of “Mother of All Bombs” by U.S. forces Thursday on suspected Daesh hideouts in eastern Afghanistan bordering Pakistan, killing 36 Daesh militants.
“In this aerial bombing of Daesh centers, tunnels and hideouts in the Achin district, for which the Afghan government was taken into confidence, Daesh militants and enemies of Afghanistan have sustained heavy casualties,” President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani said in a statement Friday.
Since February, government forces in Afghanistan have been waging an intensive operation against the militants in Nangarhar, where Achin is located. Just last week, a U.S. Special Forces member was killed in Nangarhar fighting Daesh.
According to U.S. Forces Afghanistan, the bomb was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Achin. Officially known as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, the mega-bomb unleashes 11 tons of explosives.
The Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed 36 Daesh fighters were killed in the strike.
Arg, the presidential palace in Kabul, said early Friday that U.S. and NATO forces were in close coordination with Afghan officials prior to dropping this largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military.
The Ghani administration has repeatedly vowed stern action against Daesh, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups while keeping doors open for talks with the Taliban only.
Ghani stressed that thanks to close coordination, the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces and the international forces in Afghanistan have largely avoided civilian casualties during such offensives.
“Fundamentalism and terrorism are major obstacles to peace, stability, and development for the region and the world, so it should be dealt with using a clear strategy without differentiating between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ terrorism,” he said.