US drops 'Mother Of All Bombs' on Islamic State targets 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.

The strike occurred at about 7:32 pm local time (1502 GMT).

Adam Stump is a Pentagon spokesman. Stump says it was the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43.

The bomb 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."

This munition was developed during the Iraq War.

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.