US drone strike kills Al Qaeda commander

Operations in Afghanistan hits Pakistan plotter

WASHINGTON // A senior Al Qaeda commander linked to major attacks in Pakistan, including the bombing of a luxury hotel and an assault on a cricket team, has been killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan, the US said on Saturday.

Qari Yasin, a member of the Tehrik- e- Taliban Pakistan group (Pakistani Taliban), was killed on March 19 in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province, the Pentagon said.

“The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice,” said US defence secretary Jim Mattis.

Yasin, who used several aliases including Ustad Aslam, was accused of plotting the September 20, 2008, bombing on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens of people, including two US services members.

He was also said to have been behind a n attack in 2009 on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore that killed six Pakistani police officers and two civilians, and wounded six members of the team.

According to official Pakistani most - wanted lists, Yasin was also behind failed attempts to kill former president Pervez Musharraf in 2003 and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz in 2004. The Pentagon said he was a native of Pakistan’s south-west Balochistan region, although Pakistani records said he came from Punjab province.

Security analyst Amir Rana said Yasin was the latest in a series of Pakistani militant fugitives to have been killed in Afghanistan, including Qari Saifullah Akhtar, a former close associate of Mullah Omar, who

‘ The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and target innocent people will not escape justice Jim Mattis US defence secretary

died in a clash with Afghan security forces in January.

“He was once a senior figure and one of the Pakistani Taliban’s few non-Pashtun leaders,” said Mr Rana.

He added that Yasin had become inactive after fleeing to Afghanistan. Pakistan and Afghanistan have accused each other of harbouring militants who carry out attacks in each others’ countries.

On Thursday, Taliban fighters captured Afghanistan’s southern district of Sangin, where US and British forces suffered heavy casualties before it was handed over to Afghan personnel.

The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and US troops over the past decade, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency.