The Department of Defense confirmed Saturday that a March 19 US airstrike in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, killed high-ranking al Qaeda leader Qari Yasin. A native of Pakistan, Yasin helped plan a September 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens, including Maj. Rodolfo Rodriguez and Navy Third Class Petty Officer Matthew O’Bryant, as well as a 2009 attack on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. “The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice,” said Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, according to a DOD press release.
A new document released by the Space Force last week laying out how the service plans to fight a war in space defines and uses many terms already familiar to military planners—and that’s the point, experts say, as USSF leaders continue their drive to “normalize” warfighting in orbit.