Pentagon: US dropped largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan

The Pentagon says U.S. forces in Afghanistan dropped the military’s largest non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan.

Adam Stump is a Pentagon spokesman. Stump says it was the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43, which he said contains 11 tons of explosives.

The Air Force calls it the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb.

Based on the acronym, it has been nicknamed the “Mother Of All Bombs.”

Stump says the bomb was dropped on a cave complex believed to be used by IS fighters in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, very close to the border with Pakistan.

ABC News reports Afghan forces, and the American troops advising them, have engaged in heavy fighting with ISIS forces in Afghanistan over the past year.

An American special operations soldier was killed this past weekend in combat operations against ISIS in Nangarhar Province.

Achin District, which is where the bomb was dropped and is a part of Nangarhar Province, is right on the border with Pakistan.