The March 19 strike, probably carried out by a drone, killed Qari Yasin in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. According to the Pentagon, Yasin had “plotted multiple” terrorist attacks, including a 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team. Local media also indicated that Yasin was responsible for coordinating multiple plots against Pakistani officials and politicians, including former president Pervez Musharraf. Less than four months later, in January 2009, a U.S. drone strike was thought to have killed an al-Qaeda operations chief, Usama al-Kini, who was responsible for planning the Marriott attack. With 8,400 hundred troops still in Afghanistan, the United States regularly carries out counterterrorism operations in the country against a number of terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Source: Washington Post March 26, 2017 01:57 UTC