It's the first-ever combat use of the bomb, said Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump. It contains 11 tons of explosives.
The region butts up against the porous Pakistan border. The GBU-43 bomb known as "Mother Of All Bombs" was dropped in Afghanistan targeting an IS complex.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said the action was taken in coordination with his military and added that the bombing was "designed to support the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and United States forces conducting clearance operations in the region".
US military authorities in Afghanistan estimate that ISIS could have up to 800 fighters in the country, with most operating in the remote eastern Nangarhar province.
The strike came as US President Donald Trump prepares to dispatch his first high-level delegation to Kabul, amid uncertainty about his plans for the almost 9000 American troops stationed in Afghanistan.
However, ISIS denied that any of its fighters were killed or injured, according to a statement in Arabic distributed by the terror group's media wing, Amaq News Agency.
An Afghan commando stands guard at Pandola village, near the site of the USA forces' bombing in Achin district of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, April 14, 2017.
President Donald Trump said this week he would be sending his new national security adviser, Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, to Afghanistan "to find out how we can make progress alongside our Afghan partners and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies". He said a clearance operation to assess the site of the attack was continuing. President Trump called the operation "very, very successful mission".
"Fortunately there is no report of civilians being killed in the attack", Khogyani said.
The bombing triggered shock waves in Afghanistan.
Two senior Afghan officials have said the huge bomb launched by the United States against the so-called Islamic State killed at least 90 fighters, many more than previous estimates which said that around 30 had died.
In another dramatic show of military force after the bombing of a Syrian airfield with 59 Tomahawk missiles, the U.S. military on Thursday dropped a GBU-43/B, colloquially known as the "Mother Of All Bombs" or MOAB, to target tunnels and bunkers built by Islamic State fighter in Nangarhar province.
The Afghan government worked closely with the Trump administration during the planning stages for dropping the bomb and gave use of the MOAB its approval.
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"The enemy had created bunkers, tunnels and extensive mine fields, and this weapon was used to reduce those obstacles so that we could continue our offensive in Nangarhar", General John Nicholson, the most senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said on Friday. He said that allowing the US military to launch such an attack in Nangarhar was an insult to Afghans.
This unprecedented use of power has stirred mix reaction in Afghanistan.
But the group has been steadily losing ground in the face of heavy pressure both from USA air strikes and a ground offensive led by Afghan forces.
"It is certainly something that will get the attention of military forces in that area". "We thought it had happened right in front of our house", he said.
The United States, as part of its counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan, has been helping Afghan forces battle the local ISIS branch known as Islamic State-Khorasan Province since previous year.
Afghan officials had earlier said the bombing had killed 36 IS fighters.
The bomb also destroyed the terrorist's weapons storage facilities and completely destroyed their underground tunnel system, which they used to evade USA military drone strikes.
Unlike the MOAB, which uses conventional ordnance, the FOAB aka "Big Daddy" is Thermobaric - meant to burn its targets.
"It is not related to any outside events other than our focus on destroying Daesh in 2017".
However, former Afghan president Hamiz Karzai condemned the attack, saying that the U.S. was using their soil to test weapons.
The MOAB is believed to be the deadliest non-nuclear weapon designed.
"This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most brutal misuse of our country as testing ground for new and unsafe weapons".
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