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A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," was dropped at 7:32 p.m. local time, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A MOAB is a 30-foot-long, 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition.

President Donald Trump called it "another successful job" later Thursday.

The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, stationed in Afghanistan and operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump told CNN.

Officials said the target was an ISIS cave and tunnel complex and personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province, a remote area in the country's east which borders Pakistan.]

"The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously and in order to defeat the group we must deny them operational space, which we did," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said later Thursday. The strike "targeted a system of tunnels and cave that ISIS fighters use to move around freely."

Afghanistan's ambassador to the US, Hamdullah Mohib, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin that the bomb was dropped after fighting had intensified over the last week between US Special Forces and Afghan troops against ISIS.

The US and Afghan forces were unable to advance because ISIS had mined the area with explosives, so the bomb was dropped to clear the tunnels, Mohib said.

Trump declined to say whether he personally signed off on the strike, but did comment, "Everybody knows exactly what happens. So, what I do is I authorize our military."

He continued, "We have given them total authorization and that's what they're doing."

Asked about Trump's "total authorization" comments, a senior administration official declined to specify whether the President indeed ordered the strike in Afghanistan.

But the official said that in general, "We don't approve every strike," adding that, "This administration has moved further away" from dictating military strategy from the White House.

It's a change both Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis wanted, the official said.

The President has granted military commanders broader latitude to act independently on several battlefields where US forces are involved, which Trump touted as making a "tremendous difference" in the fight against ISIS.

Republican hawks were quick to voice their support for the strike Thursday.

"I hope America's adversaries are watching & now understand there's a new sheriff in town," tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. "Pleased Air Force dropped MOAB against ISIL in Afghanistan. Must be more aggressive against ISIL everywhere - including Afghanistan."

But California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier voiced concerns about potentially increasing US military involvement in Afghanistan.

"We are escalating in an area I think we should be deescalating in," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Coupled with what happened in Yemen, what happened in Syria, these are efforts that are made to suggest that we will be engaging in wars in three different countries simultaneously."

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of the bomb, according to the sources. The authority to deploy the weapon was granted to Nicholson by the commander of US Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, Stump said.

This is the first time a MOAB has been used in the battlefield, according to the US officials. This munition was developed during the Iraq war and is an air blast-type warhead that explodes before hitting the ground in order to project a a massive blast to all sides.

As originally conceived, the MOAB was to be used against large formations of troops and equipment or hardened above-ground bunkers. The target set has also been expanded to include targets buried under softer surfaces, like caves or tunnels.

Former Defense Secretary William Perry described the stark difference in power between a MOAB and nuclear bomb.

"The #MOAB explosive yield is 0.011 kilotons, typical nuclear yield is 10-180 kilotons - the US alone possesses over 7000 nuclear weapons," he tweeted.

"As ISIS-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Nicholson said in a statement following the strike.

"This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K," Nicholson added.

"US forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties with this strike. US Forces will continue offensive operations until ISIS-K is destroyed in Afghanistan," read the statement from US Forces Afghanistan.

The extent of the damage and whether anyone was killed is not yet clear. The military is currently conducting an assessment.

The Pentagon is currently reviewing whether to deploy additional trainers to Afghanistan to help bolster US allies there.

There are about 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan and they regularly perform counterterrorism operations against ISIS in the Nangarhar Province.

The US counterterrorism mission is separate from the NATO-led effort to train, advise and assist the Afghan army and police force.

While ISIS is identified primarily with its presence in Iraq and Syria, US and coalition officials have long expressed concern about a growing presence in Afghanistan.

ISIS first emerged in the summer of 2015 in the country's east, fast gaining ground and support, often among disaffected Taliban or Afghan youth.

US military officials have said the ISIS branch is largely comprised of former members of regional terror groups, including the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

A US official told CNN that the military estimates are that the Afghan affiliate of ISIS has about 600 to 800 fighters, primarily based in two to three districts in southern Nangarhar. There are also a small number of ISIS operatives in Kunar province as well, the official added.

The Afghan offshoot's link to the organization's Syria-based leadership has been questioned. Many say in fact the Afghan ISIS fighters came from Pakistan and adopted the group's branding in order to get financing.

CNN's Zachary Cohen, Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond, Ehsan Popalzai and Euan McKirdy contributed to this report.

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US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan -- CNN

Targeting an ISIS cave complex in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, the U.S. military dropped a 22,000-pound bomb nicknamed "the mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S.

Formally known as the GBU-43, or massive ordnance air blast (MOAB) bomb, it was developed in 2003.

"At 7:32 p.m. 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," U.S. Forces Afghanistan said in a statement Thursday. ISIS-K refers to ISIS-Khorasan, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan that mainly operates in the eastern part of the country. Achin is right on the border with Pakistan.

Thursday was the first time the MOAB has been used in combat.

"The strike used a GBU-43 bomb dropped from a U.S. aircraft," the statement continued. "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."

The bomb was dropped from the rear of an MC-130 aircraft, said Adam Stump, a Pentagon spokesman.

The bomb is so large that it is carried in the cargo hold of the aircraft then rolled out the plane's rear door toward its target.

While the MOAB is the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat, it is not the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. military's arsenal. That is the massive ordnance penetrator (MOP), which is 30,000 pounds.

"As ISIS-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," said Gen. John W. Nicholson, the commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K."

The military statement added, "U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties with this strike. U.S. forces will continue offensive operations until ISIS-K is destroyed in Afghanistan."

Defense officials said Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, had the authorities to use the bomb as part of the larger authorities to fight ISIS granted to his command in January 2016.

The officials said the planning to use the bomb had been under way for months during the Obama administration and that the bomb had been in Afghanistan for months.

One official described the use of the MOAB as "the right weapon, the right target, and the desired effect.

Afghan forces and the American troops advising them have engaged in heavy fighting with ISIS forces in Afghanistan over the past year.

An American special operations soldier was killed last weekend in combat operations against ISIS in Nangarhar province, where the bomb was dropped. A defense official told ABC News there was no link to that incident since the bomb drop had been planned months ago.

Asked Thursday if he authorized the strike, President Donald Trump said he authorized the military.

Everybody knows exactly what happened, and what I do is I authorize my military weve given them total authorization," he said.

He added, Frankly, thats why theyve been so successful lately, saying recent weeks stand in contrast to the last eight years under former President Barack Obama.

But Trump may have been referring to the broader authorities provided to the U.S. military in the fight against ISIS in Afghanistan since a defense official said the use of the bomb did not require presidential authority.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story, citing the U.S. military, stated that the MOAB is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. militarys arsenal. This story has since been updated to reflect that the MOAB is the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S.

ABC News' Jordyn Phelps contributed to this report.

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US drops 'mother of all bombs' on ISIS forces in Afghanistan ...

Thursdays detonation in Afghanistan of the massive GBU 43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) could be for this war what the Tet Offensive was for Vietnam: a tactical military success that became the iconic symbol of a war gone hopelessly wrong.

Famed CBS correspondent Walter Cronkites poignant post-Tet commentary woke up Americans to that wars strategic bankruptcy. The MOAB should do the same for Afghanistan. Fortunately, there is still time to win this one.

I have known General Nicholson for nearly ten years. There is no senior American official with more experience in the country. He must have carefully considered the use of the bomb and made a sound decision on the military considerations. Therein lies the rub.

Afghan responses in the Twittersphere reflect the polarizing nature of this intractable conflict. Pro-government voices applaud the strike and note the absence of civilian casualties. Critics use the strike to stoke outrage. They decry what they call the continued use of Afghan soil as a testing ground for massive weapons. Former President Hamid Karzai, whom the United States supported after the fall of the Taliban, took to Twitter to condemn the strike and called on Afghans to put a stop to U.S. military operations. The Taliban likely are pleased with the strike. They detest IS-K as much or more than they despise the Afghan government.

These responses were entirely predictable, but whatever effort was coordinated to limit the potential fallout seems ineffective. Unless the United States and Afghan governments can provide extensive post-strike analysis that justifies the bombing in the minds of Afghans, civil unrest becomes likely. Combined with high levels of dissatisfaction with the government, unemployment likely reaching 50 percent, an ongoing refugee crisis, heightened tensions with Pakistan, and steady advances by the Taliban, such unrest could explode into catastrophe. I wrote in 2015 about exactly this kind of calamity arising and how to prevent it.

The fact of the matter is that no American in Kabul oversees the full-range of U.S. political, diplomatic, military, economic, and intelligence operations in Afghanistan. Each agency operates in its own bureaucratic silo. As consistently happens in war, business, and government, silos can undermine performance and even lead to disaster.

The only person with the authority and responsibility to manage the full-range of American efforts in Afghanistan is President Trump. He is also the only one who can do so regarding conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, not to mention ongoing challenges with North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China. This absurd situation is a major reason why the worlds greatest military cannot seem to win any wars. It also helps to explain why so much in-silo progress made at such expense consistently fails to add up to strategic success.

How can President Trump prevent the MOAB from becoming Afghanistans Tet?

First, he needs to put somebody in charge of the full range of American efforts in Afghanistan immediately. There is no U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan. Key senior officials in State and Defense have yet to be nominated. The most logical person, therefore, is General Nicholson. He has the experience, relationships, breadth of vision, and intellectual courage to handle the responsibility. He is also in Kabul.

Second, he needs to develop a realistic Afghanistan policy and direct Nicholson to develop an integrated strategy to achieve a successful outcome. The Afghan strategy has been adrift since 2010, as the Obama administration fixated on troop withdrawals. National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster needs to complete the policy review so Nicholson and an interagency team can begin making a strategy worthy of the name.

The MOAB does not need to become a new symbol of expensive failure. Americans need to begin asking what the hell is going on and demand the Trump administration deliver realistic aims, a credible strategy, and proper war management. The stakes are worth it.

Christopher D. Kolenda(@Chris_Kolenda) isa senior fellow at the Global Policy Center and author of Focused Engagement,a critically acclaimed report on Afghanistan with the Center for a New American Security.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Afghanistan is at risk of becoming the new Vietnam - The Hill (blog)

Fox News celebrated the attack with a Toby Keith song. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty Images

The US dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat on eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 36 Isis militants and, as local people told the Guardian, sending tremors through the ground like a boat in a storm as flames enveloped the sky.

But to Fox News which celebrated the bombing in an excited segment of the show Fox and Friends on Friday morning this was what freedom looked like.

Grainy black-and-white footage of a bomb exploding and flattened Afghanistan desert played on the morning show, accompanied with country music, as if it were a music video.

You hear Mother Freedom / Start ringin her bell / And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you / Brought to you courtesy of the red, white and blue, crooned country singer Toby Keith, timed perfectly with the explosion.

That videos black and white, but that is what freedom looks like, declared Fox anchor Ainsley Earhardt. Thats the red, white and blue.

The talkshow host Geraldo Rivera replied: One of my favorite things, in the 16 years Ive been here at Fox News, is watching bombs drop on bad guys.

But while Fox News applauded the Afghanistan bomb footage, others in the US media were a little more skeptical.

Thursdays bombing had a feeling of deja vu, wrote CNNs national security analyst Peter Bergen, referring to the deadly daisy-cutter bombs used in Afghanistan in 2001. Thats a useful reminder that very few military campaigns are won from the air.

On the more liberally minded MSNBC show Morning Joe, guests seemed sceptical about the need for the bomb.

This is a strange use of this very large ordinance, said David Ignatius, a foreign policy commentator.

I think the statement is: Hey folks, the gloves are off. The military benefits of using it in Afghanistan in this way are probably limited but the signal is pretty powerful, said Ignatius.

Apart from that of Fox News, the media reactions were more subdued than those last week when 58 Tomahawk missiles were dropped on Syrian airfields in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons against civilians, and the media greeted the news excitedly.

I think Donald Trump became president of the United States last night, said Fareed Zakaria, host of CNNs flagship foreign affairs program, after the Syria attack.

The New York Times headlined an opinion piece On Syria attack, Trumps heart came first before later toning it down online.

It was hard not to feel some sense of emotional satisfaction, and justice done, when American cruise missiles struck an airfield in Syria on Thursday, read a Times editorial.

Brian Williams, the NBC host who publicly fell from grace after he presented falsehoods about his experiences, called the footage of the US military striking Syria beautiful pictures twice, and noted: I am tempted to quote the late Leonard Cohen: Im guided by the beauty of our weapons, a reference to the Cohen song First We Take Manhattan.

I mean this with all due respect: the sales department at the Pentagon, especially in the era of moving pictures, is very effective, Williams said.

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Fox News sets Afghanistan bombing to Toby Keith song as other outlets voice doubt - The Guardian

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Steeped in centuries of seemingly impenetrable tea tradition, Afghanistans capital is getting a little coffee buzz.

Nargis Aziz Shahi says business has been increasing day by day since she opened iCafe a couple of weeks ago. Looking a little like a brick-walled Starbucks with a distinctively homey Afghan feel, its attracting a mostly youthful clientele drawn by free internet service and books to peruse over a cup or two.

There were three key objectives that led me open the cafe: 1) to introduce coffee to Afghans who mostly dont know coffee and its taste and benefits; 2) to provide a place for our youth to carry out social activities; and 3) to provide job opportunities for young people, Shahi told VOAs Afghan service.

Tea came to Afghanistan early

Afghanistan was introduced to tea early because of its location on ancient trade routes. The Chinese traded silk and tea for other commodities. Tea became part of the countrys hospitality for guests. Just about every family has its own recipe.

Today, Afghanistan is the worlds largest tea consumer, with each person consuming an average of almost 4.5 kilograms more than 1,500 cups per year in 2012. By comparison, the U.S. ranked 72nd at 0.4 kilograms per person.

Only the Russian Federation and Britain, with much larger populations, import more tea.

Coffee culture gets a start

Dr. Nabi Misdaq, adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, has visited iCafe. He regards coffee drinking as a new, enlightening culture in Afghanistan.

It is a good beginning, Misdaq said. It is a profitable business, because many young people come here to read books and exchange ideas. I am sure that this will also lead to the opening of new shops.

The cafe also serves as a place for young Afghans to carry out social and cultural activities. They come to iCafe to attend literary programs and poetry contests.

The female customers say there are few other places where they can get together and entertain themselves, but they maintain that they come to the shop to relax and enjoy.

I am very happy that we have a coffee shop in Kabul, said customer Samira Seerat. It is a very good place for women to visit. There are in fact no appropriate places for women in Kabul, and Afghanistan as a whole, to visit, because our people believe that women cannot go to restaurants.

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New Kabul Coffee Shop Aims for Success in Tea-dominated Afghanistan - Voice of America