At least 94 Islamic State militants including four key commanders were killed in Afghanistan after the U.S. dropped a massive bomb on a cave complex in Nangarhar province, the provincial government said Saturday.
Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesperson for the provincial governor in Nangarhar, said the attack had killed at least four leaders of the militant organisation.
But he said it could be "significant" because the attack came at evening prayer time, when fighters might have been concentrated in one area.
Friday saw global audiences awaking to news the United States military had dropped a GBU-43/B MOAB - the largest non-nuclear weapon in its arsenal - on a jihadist defensive position in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.
"This was the right weapon against the right target", declared American Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan.
He said a clearance operation was continuing.
He said he was in constant communication with officials in Washington, but the decision to use the 9,797-kilogram GBU-43 bomb was based on his assessment of military needs and not broader political considerations.
The Afghan government said it had worked with the USA military to coordinate the bomb strike, a sharp escalation of the US fight against Islamic State in Afghanistan.
The US commander in Afghanistan said on Friday that the decision to use one of the biggest conventional bombs ever used in combat was purely tactical.
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The event marked the use of the weapon on the battlefield for the first time in history.
The bombing left villagers terrified on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.
One resident living around 2 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the blast told CNN he heard an "extremely loud boom that smashed the windows of our house".
The militants have proved unpopular with Afghan villagers, who resent their attempts to ban poppy cultivation, and have been pummeled by both the Taliban and US -led coalition airstrikes.
It was a dramatic escalation of American operations against the militant group's affiliate in South Asia.
The US estimates 600-800 IS fighters are in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar.
Dropping the munition in Afghanistan was "another successful job", said President Donald Trump. Last Saturday, an American special forces soldier was killed fighting militants.
"Afghan and foreign troops closely coordinated this operation and were extra cautious to avoid any civilian casualties", it said.
Sharan said Thursday's bombing "sounds more like a message to the worldwide rivals, including Russian Federation and even North Korea, than actually a serious attempt by the Trump administration to get more deeply involved in the Afghan war".
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