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THERMOBARIC BOMBS
alledan
Member Posts: 19,541
TORA BORA, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Airstrikes on targets in mountainous eastern Afghanistan resumed Friday after three days of reconnaissance missions, including the destruction of a convoy the Pentagon said was carrying al Qaeda leadership. The Pentagon also announced a new high-tech bunker busting bomb is being sent to Afghanistan. The laser-guided bomb is a "thermobaric" weapon, a high-temperature, high-pressure explosive that destroys underground caves and tunnels. U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace said a convoy with 10 to 12 vehicles was attacked by AC-130 gunships and fighter jets near the city of Khost, southwest of the Tora Bora mountains. Pace declined to give specifics about what leaders were in the convoy but he said the people were killed and the vehicles and the compound from which the convoy left were destroyed. The airstrike was based on intelligence information that the Pentagon received, he said. Khost has been hit before by U.S. airstrikes because terrorist training camps are believed to be located in the area. "But the intelligence that we gathered at the time indicated to us that this was in fact leadership, and we struck the leadership, as we will do next time we get that kind of intelligence," said Pace, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. F-14 and F-18 fighter jets from the carrier USS John C. Stennis flew their first missions Friday since arriving in the region on December 15, striking undisclosed targets. The Stennis replaced the USS Carl Vinson in the region in mid-December. The Stennis battle group includes 10 U.S. and Canadian ships and submarines, plus more than 80 tactical aircraft, and 8,500 sailors and Marines. New weapon more effective in caves, tunnelsTen of the new bunker-busting bombs are being sent for use in the Afghanistan campaign. The weapon uses a new class of fuel-rich explosive in its warhead that releases energy over a longer period of time than conventional explosives. This allows for a longer period of high pressure inside a confined space like tunnels or caves, thereby creating more destruction. The Pentagon said tests show this new type of explosive is more effective specifically in caves and tunnels. In an accelerated two-month field test completed on December 14, the Air Force demonstrated that a ground-penetrating warhead filled with thermobaric explosives could destroy a mock tunnel target at the Nevada Test Site. "It's something that we clearly have a need for in Afghanistan, and they're on their way over there," said Edward Aldridge, under secretary of defense for acquisition. The new warhead, known as the BLU-118B, is fitted onto the BLU-109 2,000 pound air-launched bomb, and will be launched by Air Force F-15E fighter jets. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also confirmed that "hundreds" more troops will be joining the forces searching caves in the Tora Bora region for al Qaeda fighters. Up until now, anti-Taliban Afghan fighters and a limited number of U.S. Special Forces have been conducting the searches. Late Thursday, two U.S. military sources told CNN that up to 500 Marines could be ready as soon as this weekend to begin searching the Tora Bora caves. Rumsfeld, who appeared with Pace at a Pentagon news briefing, declined to say whether the additional troops would be Marines. "Whatever is needed will be sent, and it won't be just U.S. It'll be coalition forces," he said. Rumsfeld also reiterated that the United States still doesn't know where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is, or if he is dead or alive, but he also warned against drawing any conclusions. "There's a truth, a truism in the intelligence world that is appropriate to the question of where is bin Laden," Rumsfeld said. "And it is the following, that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
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