Thursday's strike was not the first time Islamic State fighters have been targeted by heavy American bombardment in Nangarhar, where a USA special forces soldier was killed battling militants a week ago.
Nicholson had a secondary goal in mind, however, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.
The Islamic State group's Aamaq news agency denied that any of its fighters were killed or wounded, citing a source within the group.
The decision to use the United States' biggest non-nuclear bomb may have been signed off by the commander of US and Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, but it bears all the hallmarks of Donald Trump, US commander-in-chief.
MOAB was first tested in March 2003 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
ISIS-affiliated media released a statement Friday contradicting this account, however, saying that none of their fighters or any of their civilian "supporters" were killed or injured in the bomb blast. The US military previously estimated ISIS had 600 to 800 fighters operating in the area.
Afghan defense officials said at least 36 suspected members of ISIS-K (the Khorasan group) died in the blast, Reuters reported.
The bomb was dropped on Achin district in Nangarhar province, the long-time home of the terrorist group in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State group denied on Friday it had suffered casualties from the USA military's largest non-nuclear bomb which hit its mountain hideouts in Afghanistan, in a statement on its propaganda agency Amaq.
"The GBU-43 is created to destroy caves and tunnels which ISIS-K have been using along with extensive belts of IEDs to thicken their positions against our offensive".
US and Afghan troops went on the offensive against a local Islamic State branch in March.
SoCal Lawmakers Condemn Egyptian Bombings On Palm Sunday
The twin attacks marked one of the bloodiest days in recent memory for Egypt's Christian minority, the largest in the Middle East. George Church in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, where at least 27 people were killed and 78 others wounded, officials said.
The attack was carried out in a remote mountainous area of Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border where there had been heavy fighting in recent weeks between Afghan forces and IS militants.
It hasn't said how much it cost to develop the bomb or how many of them exist.
In a video posted by US Central Command's official Twitter handle, @CENTCOM, one can see the exact moment of impact and the cloud of smoke that rises following the explosion.
The Taliban, the main security threat to Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces trying to quell their stubborn insurgency, also denounced the bombing. Over the past year they have largely concentrated on thwarting a surge of attacks by the Taliban, who have captured key districts, such as the Helmand province, which American and British troops had fought bitterly to return to the government. "They could literally with these thousands of artillery strikes wipe out 20-million people - that's without even using their nuclear weapons".
The display of firepower, however, serves a clear political goal at a time when USA president Donald Trump faces dwindling popularity at home and a growing number of crises overseas, from Syria to North Korea.
"I want a hundred times more bombings on this group", said Hakim Khan, 50, a resident of Achin district, the site of the blast.
ISIS has established a small stronghold in eastern Afghanistan and launched deadly attacks on the capital, Kabul.
The U.S. government's top watchdog on Afghanistan said earlier this year that the Afghan government controls less than 60 percent of the country.
"Precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties with this air strike", Ghani said.
The Afghan Taliban, which is trying to overthrow the USA -backed government in Kabul, are fiercely opposed to Islamic State and the two group have clashed as they seek to expand territory and influence.
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