The US military has dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in the American arsenal on an area of eastern Afghanistan known to be populated by Daesh (ISIL) terrorists, according to the US Defense Department.
A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), also known as the “mother of all bombs,” was dropped at 7:32 pm local time Thursday, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon confirmed the strike was the first time the enormous bomb had been used in combat.
The MOAB weighs about 22,000 pounds (10,000 kg) and is the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed. It was developed during the US war on Iraq and is intended to target large below-surface areas.
The bomb was dropped on ISIL tunnels in Nangarhar province by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by US Air Force Special Operations Command, according to the Pentagon.
Military experts say the blast would “feel like a nuclear weapon to anyone near the area.”
The “Air Force must have had a good target…normally…