Number of IS terrorists killed by US bomb reaches 90

The number of Islamic State terrorists killed by the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ dropped by the United States on Thursday has reached 90, Afghan officials was quoted as saying by news agencies.

Afghan officials had earlier said the bombing had killed 36 IS fighters.

The US military on Thursday dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in combat on an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistani border.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb -- dubbed the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ -- was unleashed in combat for the first time, hitting IS positions in eastern Nangarhar province.

The bomb smashed their mountain hideouts, a tunnel-and-cave complex that had been mined against conventional ground attacks, engulfing the remote area in towering flames.

Officials insisted that there were ‘no military and civilian casualties at all’.

Security experts say IS had built their redoubts close to civilian homes, but the government said thousands of local families had already fled the area in recent months of fighting.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani threw his support behind the bombardment.

But some officials close to him condemned the use of Afghanistan as what they called a testing ground for the weapon, and against a militant group that controls only a tiny sliver of territory and is not considered a huge threat.

IMAGE: Afghan special forces patrol in Pandola village near the site of a U.S. bombing in the Achin district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. Photograph: Parwiz/Reuters