The US military on Thursday dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal, the GBU-43, in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
The apparent target of the air strike was a network of caves used by the militant Islamic State (IS).
It was the first time this type of bomb had been used in combat and was dropped from an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said.
A GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 pm local time, reported the US media. The bomb contains 11 tonnes of explosives.
Also known as the “mother of all bombs”, a MOAB is a 21,600-pound GPS-guided munition. It is America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
