US Goes After Pakistani Taliban Leader Who Recruits Child Suicide Bombers

Reports of Qari Hussain's death were apparently premature.

The senior lieutenant of the Pakistani Taliban reportedly had been killed in October but was formally designated as a foreign terrorist today by the Obama administration.

The administration moved to block all financing for Hussain and accused him of training and organizing the Pakistani Taliban's suicide bombers and recruiting children for such attacks.

U.S. Goes After Pakistani Who Trains, Recruits Child Suicide Bombers

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Qari Hussain, senior lieutenant of the Pakistani Taliban, is shown in an announcement in a Pakistani newspaper. The Obama administration formally designated Hussain as a foreign terrorist Thursday.

Hussain is also believed to have trained the Jordanian double agent whose suicide bombing killed seven CIA officers at a forward operating base in Khost, Afghanistan, in December 2009.

"Today's designation of Qari Hussain is in response to the wanton acts of violence he has perpetrated against the people of Pakistan and United States," said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism. "Hussain's sponsored operations have had a destabilizing effect on the region, and his use of children to carry out suicide bombings is abhorrent."

By designating Hussain as a leader of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gives the government authority to block all funds and property controlled by Hussain or any supporters who are subject to U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits any transactions between Hussain and U.S. people or entities.

The State Department said the training camps organized by Hussain "are notorious for recruiting and training men of all ages as suicide bombers," and that he is "widely considered to be the deadliest of all TTP's commanders."

U.S. authorities say the attacks he led include a November 2009 car bomb in Peshawar, Pakistan; two attacks on Pakistani government offices in Lahore; a September attack on a rally in Quetta that killed at least 54 people; another September attack on a Shiite Muslims in Lahore that killed 33; and a September car bomb in Lakki Marwat that killed at least 17 people, including four children.