‘Mother of all bombs shows Muslim lands are West’s laboratories’: Afghans react on Twitter

The US military’s largest non-nuclear bomb killed at least 36 militants as it decimated a deep tunnel complex of the Islamic State group on Thursday, Afghan officials said. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb - better known as the ‘mother of all bombs’ - hit IS hideouts in Achin district in eastern Nangarhar province.

This is how the country’s residents and officials reacted.

“Bombed area was used as ammunition dump by ISIS. Bombing was carried out in coordination with Afghanistan,” the Afghan government said.

The Afghan presidential palace said precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties.

Dawlat Waziri, an Afghan ministry spokesman, said, “No civilian has been hurt and only the base, which Daesh used to launch attacks in other parts of the province, was destroyed.”

Haji Ghalib Mujahed, a local veteran commander, said he felt “tremors” all the way to Bati Kot, a neighbouring district where he is now the administrative chief.

The bombing drew floods of responses on social media too.

Former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai was among the first ones to condemn the attack. He called on his countrymen to “stop the USA” after what he said was Washington using Nangarhar province as a testing ground for the biggest non-nuclear weapon in the US arsenal.

A journalist from Afghanistan also condemned the bombing in a series of tweets.

Some locals and reporters also blamed the West for the presence of rebels in Afghanistan.

Afghan ambassador to Pakistan also took to Twitter to share his views.

However, many on the social media supported the cause behind the bombing, chief executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan being one of them.

An Afghan-American women’s rights activist, meanwhile, showed concern following the attack.