What US is trying to say by dropping 'mother of all bombs' in Afghanistan

Thursday evening at 7.32pm local time, the US used the most powerful non-nuclear bomb used in combat, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, nicknamed the “mother of all bombs”.

Contrary to what has been widely reported, it isn’t the most powerful non-nuclear bomb. It is just the most powerful non-nuclear bomb used in combat, in Afghanistan.

The bombing was coordinated with the Afghan government. Statements from the Afghan President’s Office and the joint press conference by NATO Resolute Support-Afghan Defence Ministry stated that utmost care had been taken to avoid civilian casualties. The bombing to eliminate ISIS terrorists came just a day prior to the Moscow meet on Afghanistan.

The particular area of Tangi Assadkhel in Achin district of Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, where the bomb was dropped, is sparsely populated; no confirmed reports of civilian casualties have come yet. We might have to wait for a few days to know more.

However, the question is have civilians been affected? Contradictory statements on the night of the bombing created confusion. While a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar told the media that “we had no prior information about this bomb”, the governor of Achin district told reporters that “bombs (were) dropped on caves in mountainous area where there are no civilians nearby”.

Some Afghan elite reacted with confusion and some angrily over the bombing on social media and former president Hamid Karzai took to condemning the US over the strike. Some sections also lauded the bombing and called for more such decisive strikes. All sections however asked for sanctuaries of the Taliban in Pakistan to be targeted.

Now the question is, what does the bombing hope to achieve? I think a message is being sent out through the bombing and it has three aspects:

1) The US is still a serious player and will be for the foreseeable future in Afghanistan in spite of massive loss of territory to Taliban last year.

2) Russia, Iran and China better shape up and accommodate concerns and interests of the US, even though the US boycotted talks on Afghanistan in Moscow on Friday, a day after the bombing.

3) The epicentre of the bombing being close to the Pakistan border is a subtle warning to Pakistan to extend full support to American efforts towards stabilising Afghanistan. This could be a reason behind targeting the ISIS in east Afghanistan close to Pakistan instead of Taliban-held areas in interior Afghanistan.

US president Donald Trump, who had constantly criticised former president Barack Obama on the stagnation in the Afghan theatre, has upped the ante with his move of bombing the Achin complex.

The Achin complex of caves had been constructed by the CIA during the heyday of the mujahideen war against the Soviets. The bombing came a day ahead of the Moscow talks on Afghanistan on Friday, April 14.

Hosted by Russia, the participants included China, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The US had been invited but it boycotted the meet and had indicated the same days back.

This is the second such meet, the earlier one being in February that included Afghanistan and India. The summit had been enlarged to include Afghanistan and India after both had vehemently protested against the Russia-China-Pakistan trilateral on Afghanistan in December that didn’t have Afghanistan as a stakeholder. India has maintained that there can be no talks without the involvement of the Afghan government. 

Meanwhile, at the Moscow meet, Afghanistan urged the international community to help them in their fight against terrorism and called on the Taliban to give up arms and join peace talks.

“To save our people and defend our country, the Afghan government seriously fights against regional and international terrorism and welcomes all those attempts and assistance to beat terrorists,” Shah Sultan Akifi, a diplomat responsible for press relations in the embassy, said.

With the visit of US NSA Lt-Gen HR McMaster due in the south Asian region and the appointment of Lisa Curtis as senior director for South Asia to the NSC, the approach to Pakistan might not be the same in the new US administration.

The US has on previous occasions expressed a desire to see Indian troops on the ground in Afghanistan. The forthcoming visit of the US NSA could see a renewed push for Indian troops.

One can surmise that whether such an expensive bomb was required if at all to convey the message that it will not be the usual in the new US administration - only time will tell.

Also read: America drops 'Mother of all Bombs' on Afghanistan: When impulse overtook reason