DUSHANBE. April 17 (Interfax) - A group of extremists from Tajikistan under command of one Sheri Yazgulom (Yazgulom lion) who are members of the ISIL terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) were killed by the U.S. 'superbomb' in eastern Afghanistan.
A terrorist commander, Tajik citizen Shermakhmad Safarov, also known as Sheri Yazgulom, and 11 of his accomplices, were killed in a U.S. airstrike in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, on April 13, Ozidi Radio (Radio Liberty Free Europe Tajik service) reported referencing a source with knowledge of the situation with Tajik authorities on Monday.
Safarov had been in the hiding in the Badakhshan province, north-eastern Afghanistan, prior to 2016, Tajik authorities said. He moved later to an area in eastern Afghanistan controlled by ISIL militants.
Safarov was a member of Tajik armed opposition units during the civil war in Tajikistan (1992-1997). After the inter-Tajik peace treaty was signed in Moscow in 1997, he joined the country's armed forces and held the rank of major.
Tajik authorities have not officially commented on this report yet.
Last week, the U.S. dropped their most powerful GBU-43/B non-nuclear bomb, also known as 'the mother of all bombs', on positions of militants from the ISIL terrorist group in the Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.
The bomb was first tested in 2003 has not been used since then until lately.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) is a high-explosive bomb, 9.17 meters long and 102.9 centimeters in diameter; the bomb's weight is 9.5 tonnes, of which 8.4 tonnes is explosive substance, which is a mix of hexogen, TNT and aluminum powder. The explosive power is equivalent to 11 tonnes in TNT, the impact area is about 140 meters; it causes partial devastation at a distance of up to 1.5 kilometers from the impact point.
After the U.S. airstrike, 95 bodies of dead ISIL militants, including foreign ones, were recovered from the air-raid shelters in the Momandara valley in the Achin district, Nangarhar province, deputy chief of staff of the Afghan armed forces Murad Ali Murad said at a press conference in Kabul on Sunday.