KABUL – One year ago on this day, the US forces dropped the biggestnon-nuclear bomb on a Daesh stronghold in Achin district, in the eastof Afghanistan. The bomb was dropped to eliminate the insurgent group’sbiggest hideout in the country.
However, Daesh is still active in parts of Achin district as well as inother regions in Afghanistan.
“Their (Daesh) powerful strongholds in Achin, Pachiragam, Chaparhar andKhogyani districts (in Nangarhar) have been destroyed. Now Afghan NationalArmy are stationed in those areas and are preventing Daesh militants fromentering to Afghanistan from the other side of the Durand Line,” DefenseMinistry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told TOLOnews on Friday.
According to government officials, Daesh militants are operating inNangarhar, Kunar, Jawzjan and some other provinces and carry out terroristactivities.
The group has carried deadly attacks in Kabul, killing dozens of civilians.
“Anti-terror efforts should be much practical and they should be followedup to the end. Those who support insurgents should be found and should besanctioned. In this symbolic way, we cannot eliminate insurgency fromAfghanistan,” Ahmad Zia Massoud, former vice president under Hamid Karzai’sgovernment, said.
“No country can claim that they will eliminate Taliban or Daesh in theregion by their own. I believe that they (Afghan government and its allies)can remove them, but such acts (like dropping the Mother of All Bombs) willresult in political tension between big powers (in the world),” MoeenMoeen, member of Mehwar-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan movement, said.
The Afghan Defense Ministry and the Resolute Support Mission inAfghanistan have said the total number of Daesh fighters in Afghanistanreaches to 1,500.
Hundreds of Daesh fighters have been killed in Nangarhar and other parts ofthe country since the emergence of the militant group in Afghanistan.
Last year’s bombing in Achin raised hopes that the group will be eradicatedfrom the area, but it did not happen.
MOAB was dropped on a Daesh stronghold involving caves and tunnels inMohmand Dara area in Achin district.
The bomb weighs more than 10,000kgs and contains 8,164kgs of explosives andeach bomb costs an estimated $16 million USD to build.
Its explosion is equal to 11 tons of TNT and the blast radius is about1.6kms.
The bomb was never used before, until on 13 of April 2017 was dropped inAchin in which 40 Daesh militants were killed.
The MOAB is a concussive bomb, meaning it detonates above ground ratherthan penetrating hardened defenses, and was designed in 2002 for”psychological operations.”