Osama bin Laden

Life & Legacy

Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda, a Salafi jihadist militant organization, from 1988 until his killing in 2011. During that era, he was one of the most significant supporters of Islamic terrorism and jihadist militant movements around the world, as he aimed to found a pan-Islamic caliphate and end the United States' interventionism in the Middle East, including its support for Israel. Most notably, bin Laden helped orchestrate the September 11 attacks against the U.S. in 2001, which caused the U.S.-led global war on terror. He led al-Qaeda and its allies in numerous wars, including the Second Afghan Civil War (1992–1996), Bosnian War (1992–1995), Algerian Civil War (1992–2002), and Third Afghan Civil War (1996–2001).
Born into the billionaire bin Laden family in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, bin Laden moved to Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989). He used his personal fortune to fund several jihadist groups around the world, including the Afghan mujahideen and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and built a large Islamist network to train militants in Chechnya, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Yemen, Tajikistan, and Kosovo. In 1984, he co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat to recruit for the mujahideen, and founded al-Qaeda in 1988 to fight alongside the Afghan militants. Bin Laden commanded a mujahideen force during the First Afghan Civil War following the Soviet withdrawal.
Upon returning to Saudi Arabia, bin Laden publicly promoted anti-Western causes and opposed the Saudi royal family, leading to his exile and the loss of his citizenship in 1991. He went back to Afghanistan, then moved to Sudan later that year. In 1993, al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center in New York City. In 1996, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan; Afghanistan came under Taliban control later that year. Al-Qaeda allied with the Taliban, and they collaborated in the 1996–2001 Afghan war. In 1996 and 1998, bin Laden declared holy war on all Americans. Al-Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the U.S. and United Nations officially declared bin Laden a terrorist. That year, al-Qaeda also began an ongoing insurgency in Yemen.
The September 11 attacks were planned primarily by bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and certain intelligence sources allege they were aided by Saudi Arabia, despite bin Laden's prior expulsion. Nineteen al-Qaeda members hijacked four American passenger planes, intending to crash them into U.S. landmarks. American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon in Virginia, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before reaching the hijackers' unknown target in Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center towers collapsed after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. More than 5,000 deaths from inhalation exposure have been attributed to the attacks. An estimated 25,000 people were injured. Many nations passed stringent anti-terrorism legislation, while an international manhunt for bin Laden began. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan, deposed the Taliban, and forced bin Laden to relocate to Pakistan before February 2002. He purchased land in Abbottabad to construct a new compound, which he moved into in 2005.
Al-Qaeda fought the U.S. and its allies in the war in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the Iraq War (2003–2011), while continuing to enact major terrorist attacks worldwide. By 2009, U.S. intelligence considered bin Laden relegated to being al-Qaeda's "ideological figurehead", with Ayman al-Zawahiri instead acting as "strategic commander". In 2010, U.S. intelligence discovered bin Laden's compound. In 2011, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs conducted a raid of it, during which bin Laden was killed. Al-Zawahiri succeeded him as al-Qaeda's emir.
Polls show that Muslims at large have a negative view of bin Laden, while many Islamists consider him heroic. Elsewhere, he is overwhelmingly seen as a symbol of terrorism and mass murder.