The top US military commander in Afghanistan had said that the decision to deploy one of the largest conventional bombs ever used in combat — the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB — was purely tactical, and made as part of the campaign against ISIS-linked fighters. As many as 94 suspected ISIS militants were killed in the strike on Thursday evening in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghan defence officials said, adding there were no civilian casualties.
The strike came as US President Donald Trump prepares to dispatch his first high-level delegation to Kabul, amid uncertainty about his plans for the 9,000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan. Nicknamed “the mother of all bombs”, the weapon was dropped in Nangarhar, bordering Pakistan.
