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Six years ago, Staff Sgt. Jose Luis Sanchez lost the lower part of his left leg after he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan.

Last year, he started running marathons while wearing a prosthetic leg.

On Monday, the San Antonio resident ran the Boston Marathon for the second time and did so while carrying an American flag signed by many who served with him in Afghanistan.

Its not for me, its for others to be inspired, to be motivated, Sanchez said after finishing the race in five hours, 21 minutes, 56 seconds.

We live for others Ive learned that throughout being angry and frustrated and all that PTSD. Im channeling that to do positive and give back to whatever Ive taken from the community.

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii

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Marine who lost a leg in Afghanistan carries American flag while running Boston Marathon [Video] - Los Angeles Times

The U.S. militarys decision to drop its largest conventional weapon Thursday on positions held by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Afghanistan came as a surprise tomany who noted that the jihadists had only managed to instigate a low-level insurgency in the Central Asian nation. While the huge, costly blast may have sent a message about President Donald Trumps willingness to use extreme measures against his opponents, one of Americas biggest bombs may have missed the true target.

The U.S. Air Force dropped an 11-ton explosive, known as the mother of all bombs or Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB), on a system of caves and tunnels previously identified as a known hub for ISIS activity in Afghanistans restive Nangahar province. The 30-foot-long,$16 million bombwas capable of causing a nearly 500-foot blast radius and Thursdays attack killed an estimated 36 militants loyal to the ISIS. Trump lauded the mission, which appeared to be authorized directly by the military, as another very, very successful mission. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, however, another hardline Sunni Muslim group, the Taliban, has been regrouping.

The Taliban have good reason to believe theyre winning, Marvin Weinbaum, former State Department analyst for Afghanistan and Pakistan and resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, toldNewsweek.

Like ISIS, the Taliban have advocated for the establishment of a nation based on its ultraconservative brand of Islam. From around 1996 up until 2001 the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, ruled the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which at that time comprised more than 90 percent of the country. The rest was held down by a beleaguered faction known as the Northern Alliance, a group supported by acoalition of regional countries including Russia, Iran and India.

After 9/11, the U.S. launched amilitary intervention against the Talibanafter uncovering evidence that it had collaborated with Al-Qaeda in killing a prominent Afghan political leader namedAhmad Shah Massoud who had attempted to warn the international community about an attack such as 9/11. With U.S. support, local forces ousted the Taliban, but the groups followers all but disappeared.

During his administration, former President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Washingtons stated goal of bolstering local security forces to handlethe remaining insurgency had seemingly been realized, and a force of just under 10,000 troops were slated to stay behind. Since then, the Taliban have made steadygains across the outskirts of the nation. Largely ignored by the international community which was focused on unrest in the Arab world and the subsequent rise of ISIS, the Taliban has reclaimed a significant amount of territory in the northern Kunduz and southern Helmand provinces of Afghanistan.

ISIS are believed to have somewhere between 700 and 1000 fighters in Afghanistan, and the global jihadist group has claimed credit for several high-profile attacks but have failed to gain the local support that the Taliban has enjoyed. The Taliban, which is believed to number around 25,000individuals, has been so successful that two of its former bitter enemies, Russia and Iran, have come to the table to hedge their bets, according to Weinbaum.

It serves their best interest to keep those lines open, he added.

Russia and Iran were once united against the Taliban, but heavy U.S. militarypresence has threatened their interests in Afghanistan. In February,Army Gen. John Nicholson Jr., a top U.S. commander in Afghanistan told the Senate that Russia has become more assertive over the past year, overtly lending legitimacy to the Taliban to undermine NATO efforts and bolster belligerents under the pretense that the Taliban were involved in the fight against ISIS, which the group vehemently opposed. He also said that neighboring Iran is providing support to the Taliban.

Iran is worried that with American troops in Afghanistan, the two militaries will end up confronting each other, Mohammad Akram Arefi, an Iran-educated politics professor at Kateb University in Kabul,toldThe Washington Post.

Despite accusations of collaboration between the Russia-Iran alliance and the Taliban, the U.S. has paid little attention to the war-torn nation in recent years and Trump has not formed any apparent strategy either. The U.S. assassinated several major Taliban leaders and has continued to lend a hand to Afghan security forces, but Thursdays bombing was by far the most notable intervention lately despite having little tactical effect and not targeting the Taliban.

Instead, Washingtonhas largely pursued a strategy of buying time,in the hopes that the Afghan central government would eventually be able to establish a functioning military as well as a political and economic system that could essentially make a deal with and absorb the Taliban, Weinbaum said.

He also said recent territorial gains made by the militants, along with the newfound diplomatic contacts in Russia and Iran,was likely to lead to an upcoming spring offensive that could once again change the political landscape of Afghanistan. If the Taliban does succeed, it would likely draw its sponsor, Pakistan, and its rival, India, into the fight. Tensions between the nuclear-armed states have already escalated, meaning the Talibans takeover could have global consequences.

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The U.S. Military Bombed ISIS In Afghanistan, But The Taliban Are Winning The War - Task & Purpose

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, was dropped Thursday night on a network of fortified underground tunnels that ISIS had been using to stage attacks on government forces.

The strike in Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border killed 36 ISIS fighters, Afghan officials said. The US military previously estimated ISIS had 600 to 800 active fighters in the area but was unclear whether it had hoped to strike more.

The blast destroyed three underground tunnels as well as weapons and ammunition, but no civilians were hurt, Afghan and US officials said.

However, ISIS denied that any of its fighters were killed or injured, according to a statement in Arabic distributed by the terror group's media wing, Amaq News Agency.

The US military was quizzed Friday on whether the 21,600-pound behemoth, known as the "mother of all bombs" for its extraordinary force, was necessary for that particular target.

The GPS-guided bomb is capable of destroying an area equivalent to nine city blocks.

"This was the right weapon against the right target," Gen. John Nicholson, commander for US forces in Afghanistan, told a press conference.

"It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield."

Nicholson gave a vague response to reporters' questions on who ordered or greenlighted the strike, saying only that he enjoyed a certain amount of "latitude" to make decisions in his chain of command.

The general confirmed the strike was carried out in coordination with Afghan officials and said rigorous surveillance had been conducted to prevent any civilian deaths.

"Let me be clear -- we will not relent in our mission to fight alongside our Afghan comrades to destroy ISIS-K in 2017," he said, referring to the terror group's regional branch.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he approved of the strike and that it was designed to support Afghan and US forces conducting clearance operations in the region.

The bomb was dropped as Washington faces increased scrutiny over its military actions in the Middle East, including three US-led airstrikes in the past month that reportedly have killed civilians or allies.

But President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Afghanistan bombing was "another successful job."

Residents in Afghan villages kilometers away from the target area felt Thursday's powerful strike.

One resident living around 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the blast told CNN he heard an "extremely loud boom that smashed the windows of our house."

"We were all scared, and my children and my wife were crying. We thought it had happened right in front of our house," he said.

"I have witnessed a countless number of explosions and bombings in the last 30 years of war in Afghanistan, but this one was more powerful than any other bomb as far as I remember."

Another Afghan man, 46-year-old Abdul, who lives 3 kilometers from the site, described the thick cloud of dust that formed after the deafening blast.

"We were unable to see each other at home because of the excessive dust inside the room," he said.

"I was feeling that boom till the morning."

Locals told CNN that more than 3,000 families had fled the district in the past year or so since the militant group established its presence.

Those troops are separate from a wider NATO-led effort to train, advise and assist the Afghan army and police force.

The Taliban "control or contest" about a third of the population of the country, Bergen said, citing senior US military officials. That's around 10 million people -- more than the population ISIS controlled in Syria and Iraq at the height of its power during the summer of 2014, he said.

Thursday marked the first time a MOAB has been used in the battlefield, according to US officials. Developed during the Iraq War, the munition is an air blast-type warhead that explodes before hitting the ground to project a massive blast from all sides.

Military officials said then they hoped such a huge blast would rattle Iraqi troops and pressure them into surrendering or not even fighting.

As originally conceived, the MOAB was to be used against large formations of troops and equipment or hardened above-ground bunkers. The target set has been expanded to include targets buried under softer surfaces, such as caves or tunnels.

CNN's Ehsan Popalzai, Ryan Browne, Zachary Cohen, Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond and Euan McKirdy and journalist Saleem Mehsud contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:
Afghanistan: US defends dropping 'mother of all ... - cnn.com

Up to 36 suspected Islamic State militants were killed in Afghanistan when the US dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat, the Afghan defence ministry said on Friday.

To target what the military described as a tunnel complex used by the Isiss Afghanistan affiliate, the US for the first time used what the military colloquially calls the mother of all bombs, the GBU-43/B.

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

Designed for destroying underground targets but not itself a deep-earth penetrator weapon, the GBU-43/B has the explosive yield of more than 11 tons of TNT. The massive bomb is dropped from air force planes and detonates before reaching the ground, resulting in an enormous blast radius. Only the Massive Ordnance Penetrator GBU-57, which has never been used in war, is a larger conventional weapon.

The psychological effect on survivors or observers is considered an added impact of the weapon.

Asked whether he had authorized the bombing, Donald Trump said: Everybody knows exactly what happened. What I do is I authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world and theyve done a job as usual. We have given them total authorization and thats what theyre doing and frankly thats why theyve been so successful lately.

Did this bombing send a message to North Korea? I dont know if this sends a message; it doesnt make any difference if it does or not, the president said. North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of. He implied that China was working very hard on this issue.

Army Gen John W Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement that the GBU-43/B was the right munition to use against the Islamic State in Khorosan, or Isis-K.

As Isis-Ks losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense. This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against Isis-K, Nicholson said.

The blast detonated at 7.32pm local time in the Achin district of the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to the US military.

Sarab, a local resident from Asadkhel in Achin, close to the mountain where the bomb targeted Isis tunnels, said he saw a giant flame before the blast made the ground shake. It was the biggest blast I have ever heard, he said. Sarab added that the targeted area had recently been completely occupied by Isis fighters.

There is no way that civilians were still living there, he said.

However, a parliamentarian from Nangarhar, Esmatullah Shinwari, said locals had told him one teacher and his young son had been killed. One man, the MP recounted, had told him before the phone lines went down: I have grown up in the war, and I have heard different kinds of explosions through 30 years: suicide attacks, earthquakes different kinds of blasts. I have never heard anything like this. Phone connections are regularly interrupted in Achin and there were no immediate indication of casualties.

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.

According to the most recent estimates from the US military in Afghanistan, there are between 600 and 800 Isis-K fighters in the country. Most of them are based in southern Nangarhar province, including in Achin.

An American special forces soldier was killed last week in Achin while fighting Isis-K, but a US military spokesman in Kabul, Capt William Salvin, said there was absolutely no connection between that death and Thursdays bombing.

Nicholsons command said it took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties, without defining those steps, but gave no word on the impact to Afghan civilians.

The military said it used the GBU-43/B to minimize the risk to Afghan and US forces fighting Isis-K in Achin.

Following the bombing, US and Afghan forces began clearing operations in the targeted area.

An Afghan army soldier told the Guardian, as he was driving toward the targeted area: The explosion felt like a big earthquake, even in the surrounding districts.

Trump has said practically nothing about Afghanistan, either as candidate or president. Nicholson told Congress in February that he wanted a few thousand more troops to bolster the 8,400-strong force Barack Obama left to wage Americas longest war, now in its 16th year.

Trump on Wednesday said he would dispatch his national security adviser, HR McMaster, to meet with Nicholson and conduct a policy review. As a three-star army general on active duty, McMaster is outranked by Nicholson, making it difficult for McMaster to resist Nicholsons recommendations.

The US military is currently facing widespread concerns that its accelerated bombing campaigns in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are increasing civilian casualties. A 17 March strike on a building in Mosul is currently under investigation after killing scores of Iraqis.

US allies have also felt the brunt of escalated US airstrikes. On Thursday, the Pentagon revealed that its Syrian allies in a Kurdish-led ground force, the Syrian Democratic Forces, requested an airstrike on an errant position erroneously believed to be held by Isis. The 11 April strike killed 18 fighters belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces themselves.

Air Force statistics released on Thursday show that March 2017 was the most intense month of the US-led bombing campaign against Isis in Iraq and Syria, a war nearly three years old. US warplanes fired 3,878 munitions in March, topping January 2017s previous high of 3,600.

In Afghanistan, US warplanes fired 203 weapons in March, the highest volume since October.

Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan installed in 2001 by the US and backed by the international community, tweeted that the bombing meant Afghans needed to stop the USA.

Trump said on the campaign trail that he would bomb the shit out of Isis.

His spokesman, Sean Spicer, said on Thursday the use of the GBU-43/B showed the US takes the fight against Isis very seriously and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space, which we did .

Describing the bombing at his regular White House press briefing, he told reporters: At around 7pm local time in Afghanistan last night the United States military used a GBU-43 weapon in Afghanistan. The GBU-43 is a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon. We targeted a system of tunnels and caves that Isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target US military advisers and Afghan forces in the area.

He refused to answer further questions about the bomb at his regular press briefing, referring journalists to the Department of Defense.

Additional reporting by David Smith in Washington

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36 Isis militants killed in US 'mother of all bombs' attack ...

A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A MOAB is a 30-foot-long, 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition.

President Donald Trump called it "another successful job" later Thursday.

The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, stationed in Afghanistan and operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told CNN.

Officials said the target was an ISIS cave and tunnel complex and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province, a remote area in the country's east which borders Pakistan.]

"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," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said later Thursday. The strike "targeted a system of tunnels and cave that ISIS fighters use to move around freely."

Afghanistan's ambassador to the US, Hamdullah Mohib, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin that the bomb was dropped after fighting had intensified over the last week between US Special Forces and Afghan troops against ISIS.

The US and Afghan forces were unable to advance because ISIS had mined the area with explosives, so the bomb was dropped to clear the tunnels, Mohib said.

Trump declined to say whether he personally signed off on the strike, but did comment, "Everybody knows exactly what happens. So, what I do is I authorize our military."

He continued, "We have given them total authorization and that's what they're doing."

Asked about Trump's "total authorization" comments, a senior administration official declined to specify whether the President indeed ordered the strike in Afghanistan.

But the official said that in general, "We don't approve every strike," adding that, "This administration has moved further away" from dictating military strategy from the White House.

It's a change both Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis wanted, the official said.

The President has granted military commanders broader latitude to act independently on several battlefields where US forces are involved, which Trump touted as making a "tremendous difference" in the fight against ISIS.

Republican hawks were quick to voice their support for the strike Thursday.

"I hope America's adversaries are watching & now understand there's a new sheriff in town," tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. "Pleased Air Force dropped MOAB against ISIL in Afghanistan. Must be more aggressive against ISIL everywhere - including Afghanistan."

But California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier voiced concerns about potentially increasing US military involvement in Afghanistan.

"We are escalating in an area I think we should be deescalating in," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Coupled with what happened in Yemen, what happened in Syria, these are efforts that are made to suggest that we will be engaging in wars in three different countries simultaneously."

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of the bomb, according to the sources. The authority to deploy the weapon was granted to Nicholson by the commander of US Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, Stump said.

This is the first time a MOAB has been used in the battlefield, according to the US officials. This munition was developed during the Iraq war and is an air blast-type warhead that explodes before hitting the ground in order to project a a massive blast to all sides.

As originally conceived, the MOAB was to be used against large formations of troops and equipment or hardened above-ground bunkers. The target set has also been expanded to include targets buried under softer surfaces, like caves or tunnels.

Former Defense Secretary William Perry described the stark difference in power between a MOAB and nuclear bomb.

"The #MOAB explosive yield is 0.011 kilotons, typical nuclear yield is 10-180 kilotons - the US alone possesses over 7000 nuclear weapons," he tweeted.

"As ISIS-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Nicholson said in a statement following the strike.

"This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K," Nicholson added.

"US forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties with this strike. US Forces will continue offensive operations until ISIS-K is destroyed in Afghanistan," read the statement from US Forces Afghanistan.

The extent of the damage and whether anyone was killed is not yet clear. The military is currently conducting an assessment.

The Pentagon is currently reviewing whether to deploy additional trainers to Afghanistan to help bolster US allies there.

There are about 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan and they regularly perform counterterrorism operations against ISIS in the Nangarhar Province.

The US counterterrorism mission is separate from the NATO-led effort to train, advise and assist the Afghan army and police force.

While ISIS is identified primarily with its presence in Iraq and Syria, US and coalition officials have long expressed concern about a growing presence in Afghanistan.

ISIS first emerged in the summer of 2015 in the country's east, fast gaining ground and support, often among disaffected Taliban or Afghan youth.

US military officials have said the ISIS branch is largely comprised of former members of regional terror groups, including the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

A US official told CNN that the military estimates are that the Afghan affiliate of ISIS has about 600 to 800 fighters, primarily based in two to three districts in southern Nangarhar. There are also a small number of ISIS operatives in Kunar province as well, the official added.

The Afghan offshoot's link to the organization's Syria-based leadership has been questioned. Many say in fact the Afghan ISIS fighters came from Pakistan and adopted the group's branding in order to get financing.

CNN's Zachary Cohen, Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond, Ehsan Popalzai and Euan McKirdy contributed to this report.

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US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan -- CNN