The US dropped its most powerful non-nuclear weapon, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, on an area of eastern Afghanistan said to be controlled by ISIS militants. The April 13 air-strike targeted a cave complex believed to be used by fighters affiliated with the Islamic State's self-decalred "Khorasan Province [4]" in Achin district of Nangarhar, near the border with Pakistan. A US special forces solider was killed in the same area last week. The MOAB, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is the largest among the Pentagon's series of so-called "bunker-busters [5]." The strike marked the first time it has been used in combat. (The Independent [6], CNN [7], LWJ [8])
