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NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Friday, April 14, 2017
U.S. hit ISIS with largest non-nuclear bomb ever used
“It is expected that the weapon will
have a substantial psychological
effect on those who witness its use.”
By ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON — U.S.
forces in Afghanistan on
Thursday struck an Islamic
State tunnel complex in
eastern Afghanistan with “the
mother of all bombs,” the
largest non-nuclear weapon
ever used in combat by the
U.S. military, Pentagon offi-
cials said.
The
bomb,
known
officially as a GBU-43B, or
massive ordnance air blast
weapon, unleashes 11 tons
of explosives. When it was
developed in the early 2000s,
the Pentagon did a formal
review of legal justification
for its combat use.
The Pentagon said it had
no early estimate of deaths or
damage caused by its attack,
which President Donald
Trump called a “very, very
successful mission.”
The U.S. military head-
quarters in Kabul said in a
statement that the bomb was
dropped at 7:32 p.m. local
time Thursday on a tunnel
complex in Achin district of
Nangarhar province, where
the Afghan affiliate of the
Islamic State group has been
operating. The target was
close to the Pakistani border.
The U.S. estimates 600
to 800 IS fighters are present
in Afghanistan, mostly in
— Pentagon report from 2003
Mark Kulaw/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP
In this May 2004 photo, a group gathers around a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air
blast (MOAB) weapon, on display at the Air Force Armament Museum on Eglin Air
Force Base near Valparaiso, Fla. U.S. forces in Afghanistan struck an Islamic State tun-
nel complex in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday with a GBU-43B, the largest non-nu-
clear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said.
Nangarhar. The U.S. has
concentrated heavily on
combatting them while also
supporting Afghan forces
battling the Taliban. Just last
week a U.S. Army Special
Forces soldier, Staff Sgt.
Mark R. De Alencar, 37,
of Edgewood, Maryland,
was killed in action in
Nangarhar.
The MOAB is a custom-
Misdirected U.S. strike killed
18 allied fighters in Syria
BEIRUT (AP) — A
misdirected airstrike by the
U.S.-led coalition earlier this
week killed 18 allied fighters
battling the Islamic State
group in northern Syria, the
U.S. military said Thursday.
U.S. Central Command
said coalition aircraft were
given the wrong coordinates
by their partner forces, the
predominantly-Kurdish
Syrian Democratic Forces,
for the strike on Tuesday
that was intended to target
IS militants south of their
Tabqa stronghold, near the
extremists’ de facto capital,
Raqqa. The strike hit an SDF
position instead.
Several nations have
lent their air power to the
U.S.-led coalition to defeat
the Islamic State group, and
it wasn’t clear which air force
was behind the errant strike.
The SDF acknowledged
the strike, saying a number
of its fighters were killed and
wounded. On Thursday, the
group held funerals for 17
of its fighters in the border
town of Tal al-Abyad, the
SDF-linked Hawar news
agency said, though it did not
say whether they were killed
in the friendly fire incident.
An activist-run group,
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered
Silently, said three days of
mourning had been declared
for the town. The Brit-
ain-based Syrian Observa-
tory for Human Rights said
25 SDF fighters were killed
in the last two days of battle.
The SDF, meanwhile,
announced the launch of a
new phase of its campaign to
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retake Raqqa. The Kurdish
fighters, with U.S.-led air
and ground support, have
surrounded Tabqa, some 25
miles southwest of the city
and are working to clear
Islamic State militants out of
Jalab Valley, north of Raqqa.
The SDF says it wants
to isolate Raqqa before
attacking it. Its closest posi-
tion is less than five miles
northeast of the city. But the
countryside south of Raqqa
is still under IS control.
made Air Force weapon
that has been in the arsenal
for more than a decade but
never used on the battlefield,
although it was available
throughout the Iraq war. It is
designed to hit softer targets
such as surface facilities,
tunnel entrances and troop
concentrations. It is pushed
out the rear of the launching
aircraft, guided to its target
by GPS and slowed by a
parachute.
A separate non-nuclear
weapon known as the
Massive Ordnance Pene-
trator, or MOP, which is larger
in its physical dimensions
but carries a smaller load of
conventional explosives, is
designed to take out deeply
buried targets like reinforced
bunkers. The MOP has never
been used in combat.
In its 2003 review of the
legality of using the MOAB,
the Pentagon concluded that
it could not be called an
indiscriminate killer under
the Law of Armed Conflict.
“Although the MOAB
weapon leaves a large
footprint, it is discriminate
and requires a deliberate
launching toward the target,”
the review said. It added: “It
is expected that the weapon
will have a substantial
psychological effect on those
who witness its use.”
Adam Stump, a Pentagon
spokesman, said the bomb
was dropped from a U.S.
MC-130 special operations
transport. He said the bomb
had been brought to Afghan-
istan “some time ago” for
potential use.
Army Gen. John W. Nich-
olson, commander of U.S.
forces in Afghanistan, said
in a written statement that
the strike was designed to
minimize the risk to Afghan
and U.S. forces conducting
clearing operations in the
Achin area “while maxi-
mizing the destruction” of IS
fighters and facilities. He said
IS has been using improvised
explosive devices, bunkers
and tunnels to strengthen its
defenses.
“This is the right munition
to reduce these obstacles and
maintain the momentum of
our offensive against ISIS-
K,” he added, using the U.S.
military’s acronym for the IS
affiliate.
Ismail Shinwari, the
governor of Achin district,
said the U.S. attack was
carried out in a remote
mountainous area with no
civilian homes nearby and
that there had been no reports
of injured civilians. He said
there has been heavy fighting
in the area in recent weeks
between Afghan forces and
IS militants.
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said IS fighters
had used the tunnels and
caves in Achin to maneuver
freely.
“The United States takes
the fight against ISIS very
seriously and in order to
defeat the group we must
deny them operational space,
which we did,” Spicer said.
Canadian legislation would legalize marijuana
TORONTO (AP) —
Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau’s govern-
ment introduced legislation
to let adults possess up to 30
grams of marijuana in public
— a measure that would
make Canada the largest
developed country to end a
nationwide prohibition on
recreational marijuana.
Trudeau has long prom-
ised to legalize recreational
pot use and sales. U.S voters
in California, Massachusetts,
Maine and Nevada voted
last year to approve the use
of recreational marijuana,
joining Colorado, Wash-
ington, Oregon and Alaska.
The South American nation
of Uruguay is the only nation
to legalize recreational pot.
The proposed law allows
four plants to be grown at
home. Those under 18 found
with less than five grams of
marijuana would not face
criminal charges but those who
sell it or give to youth could
face up to 14 years in jail.
“It’s too easy for our kids
to get marijuana. We’re going
to change that,” Trudeau said.
Officials said Canadians
should be able to smoke mari-
juana legally by July 1, 2018.
The legislation must still be
approved by Parliament but
with Trudeau’s Liberal party
holding a majority its passage
in considered assured.
The federal government
set the age at 18, but is
allowing each of Canada’s
provinces to determine if
it should be higher. The
provinces will also decide
how the drug will be
distributed and sold. The
law also defines the amount
of THC in a driver’s blood,
as detected by a roadside
saliva test, that would be
illegal. Marijuana taxes will
be announced at a later date.
The Canadian government
closely followed the advice of
a marijuana task force headed
by former Liberal Health
Minister Anne McLellan.
That panel’s report noted
public health experts tend to
favor a minimum age of 21 as
the brain continues to develop
to about 25, but said setting the
minimum age too high would
preserve the illicit market.