US drops ‘mother of all bombs’ on ISIS in Afghanistan

The US bomb GBU-43B is the biggest non-nuclear bomb ever to be used in combat and proudly brags the tag The Mother Of All Bombs.

Now it has been revealed Vladimir Putin has even bigger bomb in his mighty arsenal and it really is ‘the daddy’, according to The Sun.

Officially known as the Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power, it is already being dubbed the “Father Of All Bombs”.

It is reportedly four times bigger than the MOAB, carrying 44 tonnes of TNT and explodes in the same way as the US bomb.

Yet due to the sheer number of explosives crammed inside it causes similar blast damage to that of a nuclear weapon.

The bomb was test-fired by the Russians in 2007 where the temperature produced by the blast was also twice as high than that produced by the MOAB.

The bomber-dropped bomb is designed to explode midair by ignition of a fuel-air mixture that produces massive blast effects comparable to smaller tactical nuclear weapons.

“All that is alive merely evaporates,” General Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the Russian staff, was quoted as saying at the time.

Thermobaric devices detonate in two stages, with an initial blast dispersing explosive materials in a cloud that is then ignited by a secondary blast.

The explosion generates a much bigger pressure wave than conventional explosives, followed by a vacuum effect that compounds damage and injuries caused by the blast.

Russian sources have claimed their weapon has a power equivalent to 44 tons of TNT – or four times that of the MOAB – despite being lighter than its 21,000lb US counterpart at 16,650lb.

Because of its yield and the extremely high temperatures it generates, it is slated to replace smaller battlefield nukes currently in the Russian arsenal.

When the Russian air force began bombing rebel positions in Syria in September 2015, smaller thermobaric bombs were used against ISIS positions, but the FOAB has yet to be deployed.

MOAB WAS PURELY ‘TACTICAL’

The US’ top military commander said the decision to deploy the “Mother of All Bombs” was “tactical”.

NATO commander in Afghanistan US General John W Nicholson said the decision to drop the megabomb was based on his assessment of military needs and not broader political considerations.

“This was the first time that we encountered an extensive obstacle to our progress,” he said of a joint Afghan-US operation that has been targeting the Islamic State since March. “It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield.”

Afghan and US forces were at the scene of the strike and reported that the “weapon achieved its intended purpose,”, Gen Nicholson said.

Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said no civilians were harmed in the massive blast that targeted a network of caves and tunnels that had been heavily mined.

“No civilian has been hurt and only the base, which Daesh used to launch attacks in other parts of the province, was destroyed,” Mr Waziri said in a statement.

THE MOMENT THE MEGA BOMB HIT

Video has been released showing the moment America’s 9500-kilogram ‘mother of all bombs’ was dropped on an Islamic State tunnel network in Afghanistan early Thursday.

The largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed killed 36 militants, the Afghan Ministry of Defence said, taking out a key underground complex in the Achin district in Nangarhar province, near the Pakistan border.

However IS denied it had suffered any casualties.

“Security source to Amaq agency denies any dead or wounded from yesterday’s American strike in Nangarhar using a GBU-43/B,” the group’s self-styled news agency, Amaq, said on social media accounts.

The statements could not be independently verified, and on Friday Afghan and foreign troops in the vicinity were not allowing reporters or locals to approach the scene of the blast.

US Forces Afghanistan said the bomb was dropped at 7.32pm Thursday (1.02am Friday AEST).

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