MOAB strike: 'ISIS denies suffering casualties from US bomb in Afghanistan'

NEW DELHI: The Islamic State group in a statement on its propaganda agency Amaq on Friday denied it had suffered casualties from the US military's largest non-nuclear bomb which hit its mountain hideouts in Afghanistan. "Security source to Amaq agency denies any dead or wounded from yesterday's American strike in Nangarhar using a GBU-43/B," the group said on its social media accounts. Thr United States had said its military killed 36 Islamic State group militants and left no civilian casualties, hitting a tunnel complex in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The massive bomb terrified villagers 20 miles away across the border in Pakistan with a blast they described as earsplitting. American and Afghan forces have been battling the Taliban insurgency for more than 15 years. But the U.S. military brought out the biggest conventional bomb in its arsenal for the first time to hit the Islamic State group, which has a far smaller, but growing presence in Afghanistan — an apparent reflection of President Donald Trump's vows for a more no-holds-barred campaign against the group. The strike was carried out against an Islamic State group tunnel complex carved in the mountains that Afghan forces have tried repeatedly in past weeks to assault in fierce fighting in recent weeks in Nangarhar province, Afghan officials said. The Afghan Ministry of Defense said in a statement that several IS caves and ammunition caches were destroyed by the bomb. "This is the right weapon for the right target," said U.S. Gen. John W. Nicholson, NATO commander in Afghanistan, at a news conference. The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives. Footage put out by the Pentagon showed the bomb slamming into a mountainside overlooking a river valley, causing a giant blast that overwhelms the landscape then sends up a massive column of black smoke. Agricultural terrasses are visible in the footage, but no population centers.