U.S. today drops the largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan

The U.S. dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan on Thursday, CNN reported.

The 21,000-pound bomb, dubbed the “mother of all bombs,” or MOAB, was dropped in eastern Afghanistan province of Nangarhar to target “a series of ISIS caves,” as first reported by CNN and later confirmed to The Daily Beast by a Pentagon official. The official name of the weapon is the Massive Ordinance Air Blast Bomb, and it has never been used before in combat, but was famously tested by the U.S. in 2003. CNN’s Barbara Starr said reconnaissance missions were being flown in order to assess the damage. Starr added that the strike would have had to be approved by Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command.