Media reports say United States military said on March 25 it had killed a top al Qaeda operative behind the Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad in 2008 and the attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009. 

Qari Yasin reportedly died during US airstrikes in Afghanistan.

He had ties with the Pakistani Taliban terror group and masterminded the bombing on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens, including two American service members in 2008.

A 2009 bus attack in Lahore, Pakistan, killed six Pakistani policemen and two civilians and wounded six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed Yasin died in Paktika Province on March 19 and said in a statement: “The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice.”

The Pentagon called Yasin a senior terrorist figure from Balochistan, Pakistan with ties to Tehrik-e Taliban.