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Taken just ten days after the strategically targeted explosion to destroy both ISIS fighters and their underground tunnel system in Eastern Afghanistan's Achin District of Nanganhar province, the footage - obtained by Fox News COURTESY TOLO NEWS in Afghanistan - offers a glimpse into the destruction waged by the weapon.

With lush sprawling green meadows and grazing cattle surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the scene could be any idyllic spring countryside. But look a little closer and the scorched trees signal something far from idyllic, the results of detonating the largest non-nuclear bomb the U.S has ever used in combat.

"Scores of houses were destroyed, and even parts of the mountain were, too."

- Karim Amini, local journalist

Photos obtained by Fox News in Afghanistan taken less than two weeks after the strategically targeted explosion of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb to destroy ISIS fighters and their underground tunnels in Eastern Afghanistan's Achin district of Nanganhar province show just how devastating the munition is.

"The war is still going on near the site," Karim Amini, a local TOLO News journalist who toured the site, told Fox News. "[The destruction] was wide, but how deep the MOAB went was not clear as it dived into the earth and blew out the tunnels which you can't see."

To make it to within half a mile from where the so-called Mother of All Bombs hit, as close as one can get without risking an ISIS attack, one must take a curling, rubble-covered road under the iron-clad escort of elite Afghan forces into a sleepy area once ruled by the Afghanistan chapter of Islamic State, which calls itself ISIS-K, in reference to Khorosan.

From there, what was left after the MOAB detonated is vivid -- skeletons of burned cars, houses holed and guttered. Inside one ISIS cave on the periphery of the bomb blast, a bed frame and prayer mat can be seen crumpled on the floor. An iron cage stands beside it, a cage believed to have been used to hold and torture prisoners captured by the brutal terrorist faction.

The interior of a concrete house largely crushed by the MOAB's impact still has graffiti written in Pashto on its walls, cautioning government soldiers to "surrender to us," declaring the Afghan government "the enemy" as well as its infamous global slogan "long live Islamic State."

Moving closer to the site, with a coalition C-130 military aircraft above, one can see large trees ripped by their roots and body parts of dead fighters strewn across the decimated landscape.

"There were tunnels that were entirely destroyed, decimated guns of ISIS, about 20 dead bodies and trees ripped from the earth," Amini recalled, after having gone into areas of Achin without escort. "Scores of houses were also destroyed, and even parts of the mountain were, too."

According to one Afghan special forces soldier, the MOAB is just the beginning -- the operation is ongoing, and they intend to "clean up right to the (Pakistan) border line."

Several Afghan people residing near the MOAB explosion voiced their appreciation for the drop, saying the black-clad militants tortured their community. But these Afghanis stressed the fear they felt when the bomb detonated -- from the earth moving to children temporarily losing their hearing.

"The people were happy, but only on one condition: that ISIS die and that they disappear from that site as well as their district. Otherwise it is not of benefit to them," Amini said. "Now they want the 'father of all bombs' to be dropped and ISIS annihilated."

Multiple Afghanistan military and government officials told Fox News that there simply was no other solution but to opt for the MOAB, as the vast array of planted landmines was making it next to impossible to effectively clear ISIS from the area without enduring severe soldier casualties.

"This bomb was a good thing. It destroyed everything. ISIS can't use that area anymore, so that is the success," said Maj. Abadullah Karimi, spokesperson for the 202nd Shamshad Police Corps, which is operating in those ISIS-infiltrated areas of Nangahar Province.

And while many have expressed enthusiasm, some are outraged.

"This was truly inappropriate. The U.S. was just using Afghanistan as grounds to send a message to North Korea, Russia, trying to threaten them," Mohamad Omer Safi, former provincial governor of Kunduz and head of the U.N. Security Office-Afghanistan, told Fox News. He insisted that less than 2.5 miles behind the bombed area are more strategic ISIS locations, including caves and leadership headquarters. "Right near there is the ISIS capital. Why wasn't that targeted?"

Hollie McKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay

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'MOAB' aftermath: Fox News tours site where Afghanistan bomb was ... - Fox News

The Army this week released haunting images showing the moment a mortar tube accidentally exploded during live-fire training in Afghanistan, killing the photographer behind the lens.

Spc. Hilda Clayton, a 22-year-old visual information specialist, was documenting a training and teaching an Afghan army photographer when the mortar tube exploded. The blast killed her and four Afghan National Army soldiers on July 2, 2013.

STARBUCKS SERVING UP JOBS TO VETERANS

The Army released the photo taken by Clayton showing when the blast erupted, along with a photo taken by the Afghan Army photographer.

Claytons death symbolizes how female soldiers are increasingly exposed to hazardous situations in training and in combat with their male counterparts, Army officials said in a statement.

ARMY VET COMPLETES CROSS-COUNTRY TREK TO RAISE AWARENESS FOR PTSD AND SUICIDE

Clayton, of Augusta, Georgia, was the first Army combat documentation and production specialist to be killed in Afghanistan.

The photos have been published in the May-June edition of the ArmysMilitary Reviewjournal.

"Not only did Clayton help document activities aimed at shaping and strengthening the partnership but she also shared in the risk by participating in the effort, the journal said.

Since her death, Clayton's name has since been added to the Defense Information School Hall of Heroes at Fort Meade. The award for the winner of Combat Camera's annual competition was also named after her.

Claytons family and unit approved the release of the photos,Stars and Stripesreported.

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Army releases haunting images of combat photographer's death in Afghanistan - Fox News

WASHINGTON: Russia, Pakistan and Iran are malign actors in Afghanistan because they enable the insurgents fighting the Kabul government, says a report by an official US watchdog, quoting senior US military officials who raised this issue in recent congressional hearings. The US governments Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) notes that in the last quarter January to April 2017 a shockingly high number of official Afghan troops were killed in clashes with the militants. As many as 807 troops from the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces died between Jan 1 and Feb 24. The report, however, indicates that the renewed Russian involvement in Afghanistan was even more shocking for the US military than an unprecedented increase in attacks on both Afghan and American troops. This quarter, Russia appeared to step up its involvement in Afghanistan, claims the report, while noting that on Dec 2 last year, Gen John W. Nicholson Jr., the Commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, labelled Russia, Pakistan, and Iran as malign actors that enable insurgent or terrorist groups in Afghanistan. Gen Nicholson also said that Russia lends public legitimacy to the Taliban, which undermines the Afghan government and Nato efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, the report adds. The SIGAR report includes quotes from Generals Curtis Scaparrotti, Commander, US European Command and Nato Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and Joseph Votel, Commander, United States Central Command, suggesting that Russia may be supplying the Taliban. Russian influence in Afghanistan has increased to the point that includes perhaps [they] even supply to the Taliban, Gen Scaparrotti said. Its fair to assume [the Russian government] may be providing some kind of support to [the Taliban] in terms of weapons or other things, Gen Votel added. The Russian government publicly rejected such remarks as incorrect. The report points out that US Secretary of Defence James Mattis has been more careful than his generals in commenting on Russias growing influence in Afghanistan. Im not willing to say at this point if that has manifested into weapons and that sort of thing. But certainly, what theyre up to there in light of their other activities gives us concern, the secretary said in a recent statement. The report also refers to a peace process initiated by Russia, China and Pakistan and noted that the three states met in Moscow on Dec 27, 2016, to discuss the security situation in Afghanistan. At the time, the Afghan government expressed its displeasure at not being invited to the meeting.

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Russia, Pakistan, Iran 'malign actors' in Afghanistan, says US report - Kasmir Monitor

Defense Secretary James Mattis, third from right, walks with U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. David Clark, left, and Gen. Christopher Haas, second from right, as he arrives at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 24. Jonathan Ernst / AP

According to the report, the death tolls for both civilians and members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) are the highest recorded since the United Nations Assistance Mission began reporting them in 2009.

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In the first six weeks of 2017 alone, SIGAR said, 807 security forces personnel were

Overall, the report says, "conflict-related civilian casualties in Afghanistan rose to 11,418 in 2016," again a record.

The crisis extends beyond the dead and wounded, with 660,000 Afghan citizens fleeing their homes in 2016 to avoid violence. That, too, was a record and a 40 percent increase over 2015.

All the numbers reflect increased violence across the country. And while the U.S. military command in Afghanistan says the territory controlled by the central government increased to nearly 60 percent of the country's 407 districts, the report notes that "preventing insurgents from increasing their control or influence of districts continues to be a challenge for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF)."

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The first U.S. combat death of 2017 in Afghanistan occurred on April 8. An Army Special Forces soldier was killed while conducting counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State,

Afghanistan is troubled not just by Islamic extremist violence, the report adds. Growth and consumption of heroin is also on the rise, and the insurgents often benefit.

"Narcotics traffickers provide weapons, funding, and material support to the insurgency in exchange for protection, while insurgent leaders traffic drugs to finance their operations," said the report.

Afghanistan's potential opium production was about 4,800 metric tons in 2016 alone, according to a new survey carried out by the United Nations. More troubling, perhaps, is that drug use among Afghan women and children is among the highest documented worldwide, with 30.6 percent of households testing positive for some form of illicit drug.

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Violence, Bloodshed Mount in Afghanistan, Report Says - NBCNews.com

KABUL Afghanistans security forces are experiencing shockingly high casualties and conflict has displaced record numbers of civilians, a U.S. government watchdog said in a report Sunday on the grim challenge facing the country as it confronts the Taliban and other insurgencies with drastically reduced support from the United States and other NATO partners.

In its quarterly report to Congress, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) urged the Trump administration which is reviewing U.S. policy toward Afghanistan at a time of sustained Taliban aggression and diminished American assistance to take a hard look at its programs and priorities and to focus aid more narrowly.

Security is the most obvious and urgent challenge to rebuilding the country after 16 years of war, the report said. It noted that since 2002, 61percent of the $71billion in U.S. reconstruction aid has gone to train, equip and support the 300,000-strong Afghan defense forces.

Nevertheless, the SIGAR report said, those forces continue to be hampered by internal problems such as poor leadership and corruption as well as by an agile and determined foe that is making it difficult for them to control territory. It noted that more than twice as many Afghan soldiers and police personnel were killed in 2016 as the 2,400 U.S. troops lost since 2001.

[Afghan generals face charges in crackdown on military corruption]

In an interview here Sunday, Inspector General John F. Sopko noted that senior U.S. military officials, including Gen. John W. Nicholson, the commander of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, have described the conflict as being at a stalemate and have suggested that several thousand more U.S. troops are needed to tip the balance. The current troop level is 8,400.

If there is a stalemate, the question is why and how it can be improved, Sopko said. The why is corruption, the why is poor leadership. ... If leadership is poor, the people below dont care, and they wonder why they have to die.

The report said the Afghan armed forces are also plagued by illiteracy, an attrition rate of nearly 35percent and overreliance on highly trained special forces for routine missions. A previous report by Sopkos office described military officers reselling supplies and food intended for combat troops. Such problems, the new report said, are corrosive and can undercut civilian progress in health care, rule of law and efforts to counter the soaring drug trade.

[Afghan forces withdraw from key district in embattled Helmand province]

A recent example of the deadly cost of these weaknesses was the Taliban attack on April21 that killed at least 140 soldiers on a large Afghan army base in northern Balkh province. It was the deadliest single insurgent attack of the war, and some of the contributing factors were the same systemic flaws mentioned in the report.

One factor was poor leadership based on nepotism. Sopko said the commander of the Balkh base was known as well connected but ineffective. Another was shoddy vetting of military personnel; several of the people suspected of carrying out or helping in the attack were military recruits or former base workers. Sopko said a new system of biometric identification had been planned for all soldiers but was taking far too long to implement. And, ultimately, Afghan special forces had to come in and quash the assault though the base trains thousands of soldiers.

The report, titled Reprioritizing Afghanistan Reconstruction, also described a panoply of problems across Afghan society and government that hinder national reconstruction efforts, even as the international community has pledged substantial new aid through 2020 and wants as much of that aid to be spent and managed by Afghan agencies as possible.

Opium production stands at near record levels, the report noted. Illiteracy and poverty remain widespread. Corruption reaches into every aspect of national life. The rule of law has limited reach. Multiple obstacles deter investors. ... The ranks of the jobless grow as the economy stagnates.

Sopko said that the United States has a cooperative and willing partner in the government of President Ashraf Ghani and that senior Afghan officials really care about improving their country, but he said they have been frustrated by old systems of ethnic patronage and palm-greasing that discourage building institutions based on professionalism and merit.

He said that the government has made noticeable progress on some U.S.-backed programs, such as a new anti-corruption task force, but that even this effort has taken only baby steps and needs to prosecute some mafia big fish to bring real change and build public confidence.

In its recommendations, the report said the White House and Congress need to be prepared to perform triage on less successful projects, impose more rigorous standards of management and accountability for all programs, prevent aid funds from inadvertently reaching insurgents, establish a new strategy to combat opium production and drug trafficking, and decide whether reductions made in U.S. military and civilian oversight need to be reversed.

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It was a brutal killing that shocked Afghanistan. Now, the outrage has faded.

While the U.S. wasnt looking, Russia and Iran began carving out a bigger role in Afghanistan

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US watchdog finds major internal flaws hampering Afghanistan war effort - Washington Post