U.S. Unleashes Biggest Bomb on Al Qaeda Caves
Monday December 10 12:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States for the third time in the Afghan conflict has unleashed its most lethal ``daisy cutter'' bomb, aiming at caves where senior al Qaeda leaders, including possibly Osama bin Laden, were believed to be hiding out, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The 15,000 pound bomb was dropped in the Tora Bora area at the weekend and fighting is still so intense in the region that the U.S. military has been unable to determine what damage was wreaked, Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told a news briefing.

``There is a psychological effect of having ammunition of 15,0000 pounds of explosive capability that's brought into a very narrowly-defined area,'' said Stufflebeem, a senior official on the U.S. military's Joint Staff.

``This cave complex is literally on the sheer walls of a valley and there the reverberation effect that goes up in those caves should have some sort of negative effect,'' he said.

The bomb was dropped ``at a cave target ... it was believed that that's where some substantial al Qaeda forces would be, and possibly including senior leadership,'' he said, adding it was not known if those leaders might have included bin Laden.