what type of a shape and a blast you want to have, and as described it is a concussive blast. so everybody underneath that thing is either obliterated, ears are bleeding or they re completely destroyed. reporter: one of the key questions now, did it did it work. the u.s. is going to want to find out, make sure they did not cause civilian casualties in the area. that assessment is ongoing. jake. all right, barbara starr for us at the pentagon. thank you so much. let s turn to the politics side of this with the politics lead, for a president who pledged to voters he would disentangle the united states from involvements abroad, president trump has indeed escalated in various way u.s. military actions overseas. he has increased the numbers of boots on the ground in both iraq and syria, launched 60 tomahawk missiles at syria one week ago, he has given u.s. commanders more authority in so malya and yemen, which has increased the u.s. footprint in those countries, and dropped the bomb
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athena is live at the white house. to be fair, in addition to pledging to focus the u.s. on the u.s., president trump told voters he would bomb the bleep out isis. today did he say whether or not he specifically ordered this afghan bombing? reporter: no, he did not directly answer a question about that, talking instead about having given his commanders authorization. you re right, jake. this is a president who talked often on the campaign trail about bombing isis. so as far as he s concerned, this is another promise kept in a very literal sense. with this latest strike and the strike last week in syria, the president has shown he s willing to take military action when he deems it necessary. this strike coming as the administration is in the midst of a full strategy review of u.s. policy in afghanistan. we re very, very proud of our military. reporter: the trump administration launching another military attack. this time against isis in afghanistan. one week after striking a syria
authorization. what exactly does that mean? the president has given the pentagon the ability to do whatever it wants? the president doesn t need to sign off on major military actions? i don t think the pentagon can do whatever it wants. what it does mean is the president has decided to trust his commanders, in his view, to do the right thing. when major missions like this happen, we are told, indeed, the white house is briefed. for the first time ever, the mother of all bombs was used by the u.s. military in combat. the largest non- nuclear bomb used in combat, targeting isis fighters in eastern afghanistan s row moat nangahar province. a us air force special operations, mc-130 dropped the bomb via parachute. we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target u.s. military advisers and afghan forces in the area.