The U.S. military has dropped a 21,600-pound weapon dubbed the “Mother of All Bombs” on a suspected ISIS target in Afghanistan on Thursday.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb — the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal — was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed.
It’s the first time that the MOAB, which was developed during the Iraq War, has been used in combat. It was delivered by an MC-130 aircraft operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, according to CNN.
“The United States military used a GBU/43 weapon in Afghanistan. The GBU/43 is a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon,” Spicer said during Thursday’s press briefing. “The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously.”
The target of the bomb attack was an ISIS tunnel and cave complex as well as personnel in the Achin district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The U.S. military is currently assessing the extent of the damage.
Spicer said the tunnels made it easier for ISIS to target “U.S. military advisors and Afghan forces in the area.”
“The United States took all precautions necessary to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage as a result of the operations,” Spicer said.
Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the deployment of the MOAB, CNN reported, with approval from Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command.