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IS Death Toll Hits 90 From US Bombing in Afghanistan

IS Death Toll Hits 90 From US Bombing in Afghanistan
IS Death Toll Hits 90 From US Bombing in Afghanistan

The death toll from the American military’s largest non-nuclear bomb nearly tripled on Saturday, with Afghan officials saying at least 90 IS terrorists were killed, as US-led forces conducted cleanup operations over the rugged terrain.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb-dubbed the “Mother Of All Bombs”-was unleashed in combat for the first time, hitting IS positions in eastern Nangarhar Province on Thursday, Gulf News reported.

The bombing triggered shock waves in Afghanistan, with some condemning the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon and against a militant group that is not considered a threat as big as the resurgent Taliban.

“At least 92 IS fighters were killed in the bombing,” Achin district governor, Esmail Shinwari, said on Saturday.

Nangarhar provincial spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, gave a toll of 90.

Afghan officials had earlier said the bombing had killed 36 IS fighters.

The bomb smashed the group’s remote mountain hideouts, a tunnel-and-cave complex that had been mined against conventional ground attacks, engulfing the remote area in a huge mushroom cloud and towering flames.

Shinwari insisted there were “no military and civilian casualties at all”.

Security experts say IS had built their redoubts close to civilian homes, but the government said thousands of local families had already fled the area in recent months of fighting.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani threw his support behind the bombardment, saying it was “designed to support the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces and US forces conducting clearance operations in the region”.

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