Al-Qaeda flag
Al-Qaeda flagReuters

The Pentagon said on Saturday that a strike in Afghanistan this week killed an Al-Qaeda terrorist who was responsible for the death of two American service members and accused of involvement in a deadly attack on a bus carrying Sri Lanka's cricket team in 2009.

In a statement quoted by Reuters, the Pentagon said the strike took place on March 19 in Paktika province and killed Qari Yasin, "a well-known Al-(Qaeda) terrorist leader."

"The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice," U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said in the statement.

Earlier this month, an American missile strike killed Al-Qaeda deputy leader Abu al-Khayr al-Masri near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib.

Al-Masri, whose real name was Abdullah Muhab Rajab Abdulrahman, was second-in-command to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a member of the group’s governing body, the Shura Council.

In January, an American air strike killed another Al-Qaeda leader in northern Syria, Mohammad Habib Boussadoun al-Tunisi.