On April 13^th , 2017 the GBU-43/B was used in an airstrike on mountain tunnels that had been used by the terrorist group ISIS. After the event it was said that thirty-six militants were killed and three caves were destroyed in the blast. The bomb used has been labeled as the “mother of all bombs,” and it is the third strongest bomb used behind the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War 2.

There have not been any reports on civilian casualties, and Afghan and American officials had already taken time to ensure that there would be no harm to civilians. There were people that said that there had been people in the area when the bomb was dropped.

U.S. General William Nicholson stated that there was, “surveillance over the are before, during and after the operation, and now we have Afghan and U.S. forces on the site and see no evidence of civilian casualties,” during a news conference.

Claims were made that villages that are miles away from where the bomb landed were able to feel the blast from the bomb and that there was even shrapnel that was as big as five pounds destroying houses in the villages. Other people from a district that is twenty miles away said that they had felt the blast and that it was very bright due to the flames from the mountain.

On April 26^th ,2017 two U.S. service members were killed in a firefight with ISIS in eastern Afghanistan. This took place in the same province as the where the mother of all bombs was used. There were numerous ISIS fighters killed as well and the two service members died of injuries later. The troops were performing an operation with the Afghan National Defense and Security forces before they were attacked in Nangarhar province. The casualties of U.S. service members has become small in Afghanistan since the Afghan government became responsible for the combat operations in 2014.

There are 8,400 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan to train Afghan forces and support a counterterrorism with dealing with the many militant groups. Achin district is a base for ISIS members and has been targeted for multiple counterterrorism missions before. Another service member had been killed there in the past month.

Nicholson has promised to stop ISIS-K in this year in Kabul by saying, “we’re going to keep going until they’re defeated in 2017.”