Anti-US protesters slam the US use of a massive bomb in Afghanistan, during a rally in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 16, 2017.
Press TV
April 17, 2017
Afghan people have staged a demonstration in the capital, Kabul, to protest the recent move by the United States to drop its largest bomb, known as the mother of all bombs, in the country.
On Thursday evening, Washington dropped its biggest non-nuclear bomb, the so-called GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), on suspected Daesh targets in the Achin district of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province.
Afghan authorities said scores of militants were killed in that bombing.
Following the US airstrike, Afghan citizens expressed their anger on social media and protested on the streets of the capital on Sunday against the unlawful use of the bomb — which weighed nearly ten tons — and its possible long-term environmental impacts.
Meanwhile, the country’s Ministry of Health has launched an investigation to see whether the bomb has affected the civilian population in the region.
Early reports said children had been deafened by the loud sound of the bomb’s explosion. But there has been no formal confirmation of civilian casualties so far.
Top US and Afghan officials have called the airstrike a victory. But some well-known politicians, including former president Hamid Karzai, and US-based Afghan-Americans have strongly condemned the use of such a bomb on Afghan soil.
In a related development, Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah sacked his chief adviser Daud Asas for “irresponsible remarks” regarding the airstrike.
Asas had told local media that the US airstrike was “illegal.”
Related
- The Former President of Afghanistan Called the Recent U.S. Bombing ‘an Immense Atrocity’
- Calling Successor a ‘Traitor’, Afghan Ex-Leader Denounces U.S. Bombing