Al-Qaeda leader responsible for attack on Sri Lankan cricket team killed in US Air strike

A U.S. counterterrorism airstrike earlier this month in Afghanistan killed an al-Qaida leader responsible for a deadly hotel attack in Islamabad in 2008 and the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

In a statement last night, US defence officials confirmed the death of Qari Yasin.

Officials say Yasin is a senior terrorist figure from Balochistan, Pakistan, had ties to the group Tehrik-e Taliban and plotted multiple al-Qaeda terror attacks.

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Officials say Yasin plotted the September 20, 2008, bombing on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens.  The bus attack in the Pakistani city of Lahore left eight dead.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis says Yasin’s death “is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice.”

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