On Saturday, the Pentagon confirmed that a U.S. counterterrorism airstrike earlier this month killed Al Qaeda leader and terror mastermind Qari Yasin, a senior figure from Pakistan who plotted multiple terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of dozens of innocent people. The strike that killed him was conducted on March 19 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan.
Yasin was responsible for the deadly Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad in 2008 that resulted in the deaths of U.S. Air Force Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez and Navy Cryptologic Technician Third Class Petty Officer Matthew J. O’Bryant and over 50 others. Yasin was also responsible for the 2009 bus attack in Lahore that killed six Pakistani police officers, two civilians, and injured six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team. It was executed by attackers with rifles, grenades and rockets.
“The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice,” Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said in a statement from the Pentagon.
The Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad was among the worst in Pakistan’s history. Over 50 people were killed when a dump truck filled with 1,300 pounds of explosives blew up at the building’s entrance. The explosion left a crater that was 60-feet wide and 25-feet deep.
Below is video footage taken in the aftermath of the Islamabad bombing:
The Pentagon said that Yasin was a part of Tehrik-e-Taliban in Pakistan, now known as the Pakistani Taliban. The group was officially founded in 2007 and is comprised of about 30 militant groups. The Pakistani Taliban is the group responsible for shooting Malala Yousafzai in 2012 on her way to school. A spokesman for the group also claimed responsibility for the failed Times Square bomb in May of 2010 in New York City.
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