a Mother of All Bombs has been dropped in Afghanistan by the US.
The bomb is the largest conventional bomb, second only to a small nuke device.
The mushroom cloud resultant is very intimidating, and looks like a "mushroom cloud".
The target was called an I.S.I.S. target
reference: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-mo...anistan-2017-4
Four US officials with direct knowledge of the mission said the US had dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, aka the "Mother of All Bombs" or "MOAB," over the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, which borders northwest Pakistan.
The MOAB, which was developed during the Iraq war, is the US's largest non-nuclear bomb and had not been used in combat until now.
It weighs 21,000 pounds and was dropped from a C-130 aircraft a little after 7 p.m. local time on Thursday.
"This is a weapon that would be used against a large footprint on the ground," Starr said on CNN. The target in question was reportedly an ISIS complex with a camp and tunnels and where personnel were assembling.
The area is very close to the Pakistan border, Starr said, and "is still a border that is not really controlled."
"And they have seen ISIS develop on the Afghanistan side of the this border," she added.
"At 7:32 pm local time today, U.S. Forces - Afghanistan conducted a strike on an ISIS-K tunnel complex in Achin district, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, as part of ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017," US Central Command said in a statement.
"The strike used a GBU-43 bomb dropped from a U.S. aircraft," the statement said. "The strike was designed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. Forces conducting clearing operations in the area while maximizing the destruction of ISIS-K fighters and facilities."
"As ISIS-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said in the statement, referring to the ISIS branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISIS-Khorasan. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K."