'Mother of all bombs' kills 36 Islamic State militants, Afghanistan officials say

The US military's largest non-nuclear bomb killed at least 36 militants as it destroyed a deep tunnel complex of the Islamic State group, Afghan officials said Friday, ruling out any civilian casualties.

Afghan officials say the largest non-nuclear bomb the U.S. has ever used in combat killed at least 36 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, according to the AFP News Agency. USA forces took "all precautions necessary to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage", he 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.

The bomb was developed as an Air Force Research Laboratory technology project in 2002 for use in Iraq and was first tested at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in 2003.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the bombing "targeted a system of tunnels and caves that ISIS fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target USA military advisers and Afghan forces in the area".

"I don't know if this sends a message", Trump said when asked if the bomb serves as a warning to North Korea.

The bomb's destructive power, equivalent to 11 tonnes of TNT, pales in comparison with the relatively small atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War Two, which had blasts equivalent to between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of TNT.

The Islamic State group's strength in Afghanistan has fallen to 600 to 800 fighters from 3,000 in early 2016, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has said, adding that it killed the top 12 IS commanders in the country past year.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned the use of the weapon on Afghan soil.

"As Isis-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense".

The Pentagon announced that on Thursday, it dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal for the first time in combat, hitting an Islamic State (ISIS) target in Afghanistan.

Mr Trump has said he will allow the military more freedom, so this may simply be the result.

"We have Afghan and U.S. Forces at the site and we see no evidence of civilian casualties nor have there been reports", Gen. John Nicholson told a press briefing here.

Hakim Khan, 50, a resident of Achin district in Jalalabad where the attack took place, welcomed the attack on Isis, saying: "I want 100 times more bombings on this group".

Known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), the 21,600-pound GPS-guided munition was dropped on a tunnel and cave network managed by the terrorists in Nagahar province.

The action came a week after Trump authorized missile strikes against Syria for a chemical weapons attack on civilians.

In a message distributed on the instant messaging app Viber, the Taliban said the United States had "no justification" for using such a powerful bomb during combat operations, calling it a "show" by US forces to persuade the world it is battling the Islamic State.

While the war in Afghanistan has largely slipped from public consciousness in the United States, replaced by the conflict in Syria and ongoing tensions over North Korea, there are still around 8,400 USA troops in the country engaged in counter terrorism operations.

"President Trump owes the American people an explanation about his escalation of military force in Afghanistan and his long-term strategy to defeat ISIS", she said. "We have given them total authorization, and that's what they're doing, and frankly, that's why they've been so successful lately".