Mother of all bombs: 5 fast facts

(FILES) Undated file image courtesy the US Air Force shows the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb sitting in an undisclosed location in theater of the Global War on Terror waiting to be used. AFP PHOTO

NEW DELHI: The US military on Thursday dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat on an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border.

• The MOAB, developed for use in the Iraq war and first tested in 2003, is dropped from an aircraft on a pallet.
• A MOAB is a 21,600 pound (around 9,525 Kg), Global Positioning System (GPS)-guided munition that is US's most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
• Its main effect is a massive blast wave - said to stretch for 1.6 kms. The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by the Air Force Special Operations Command. It's the first-ever combat use of the bomb.
• GBU-43/B, colloquially known as the "Mother Of All Bombs" or MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) , was used on Thursday to target tunnels and bunkers built by Islamic State fighter in Nangarhar province.
• The MOAB was designed to target large below-ground areas. It would have "feel like a nuclear weapon to anyone near the area," Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona (ret.) told CNN.