On Thursday, president Trump ordered that a 30-foot-long bomb with a blast radius equivalent to 11 tons of TNT be dropped on ISIS tunnels and targets in Afghanistan.
The bomb, nicknamed MOAB (Mother of All Bombs), is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the United States arsenal. This was also the first time a MOAB has ever been used in combat.
Here’s test footage of what the bomb looks like when dropped:
VIDEO: MAOB, GBU-43 test footage pic.twitter.com/jlKdXgqFvn
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) April 13, 2017
President Trump gave a very short on-air statement Thursday afternoon where he discussed his discussion to order this strike.
Trump began by thanking military members, arguing that they have much more leeway now under his administration to do their jobs than they did under previous administrations.
Trump also stated a few times that the strike was “another successful job” as the intended goal was to take out caves used by ISIS in Afghanistan.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/852594072942411781
Trump was asked just before ending the discussion whether or not the strike was aimed at sending a message to North Korea amid their reckless nuclear weapons testing.
.@POTUS dismissing suggestion that #MOAB was designed to influence #NorthKorea https://t.co/0U3Ka8nqCP
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) April 13, 2017
Details surrounding the strike remain limited at the moment, but Trump did promise on the campaign trail to “bomb the sh** out of ISIS,” and he just did it.
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