Saudi-born militant and founder of al-Qaeda (1957–2011)
"Osama" and "Bin Laden" redirect here. For other uses, see Osama (disambiguation) and Bin Laden (disambiguation).
Osama bin Laden
أسامة بن لادن
Bin Laden c. 1998
1st General Emir of al-Qaeda
In office 11 August 1988 – 2 May 2011
Preceded by
Position established
Succeeded by
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Personal details
Born
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden
(1957-03-10)10 March 1957 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Died
2 May 2011(2011-05-02) (aged 54) Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Cause of death
Gunshot wound
Citizenship
Stateless (1994–2011) Saudi Arabia (until 1994)
Spouses
Najwa Ghanem
(m. 1974; sep. 2001)
Khadijah Sharif
(m. 1983; div. 1990)
Khairiah Sabar
(m. 1985)
Siham Sabar
(m. 1987)
Amal Ahmed al-Sadah
(m. 2000)
Children
20–26; including Abdallah, Saad, Omar and Hamza
Parents
Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (father)
Hamida al-Attas (mother)
Relatives
Bin Laden family
Religion
Islam (Sunni Islam)[1][2][3][4]
Military service
Allegiance
Maktab al-Khidamat (1984–1988)
Al-Qaeda (1988–2011)
Years of service
1984–2011
Rank
General Emir of al-Qaeda
Battles/wars
Soviet–Afghan War
Battle of Jaji
Afghan Civil War
Battle of Jalalabad
War on terror
War in Afghanistan
Battle of Tora Bora
Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Operation Neptune Spear †
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, romanized: Usāma bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; 10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi Arabian-born Islamic dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, he participated in the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union and supported the activities of the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Bin Laden is most widely known as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Osama was born in Riyadh to the aristocratic bin Laden family. He studied at local universities until 1979, when he joined the Afghan mujahidin against the Soviet Union in the wake of the Afghan–Soviet War. In 1984, he co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat which recruited foreign mujahidin into the war. He founded al-Qaeda in 1988 for worldwide jihad. In the Gulf War (1990–1991), Bin Laden's offer for support against Iraq was rebuked by the Saudi royal family, which instead sought American aid. Bin Laden's views on pan-Islamism and anti-Americanism resulted in his expulsion from Saudi Arabia in 1991. He subsequently shifted his headquarters to Sudan until 1996 when he left the country to establish a new base in Afghanistan, where he was supported by the Taliban. Bin Laden declared two fatawa, the first in August 1996, and the second in February 1998, declaring holy war against the United States. He orchestrated the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa. He was then listed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists and Most Wanted Fugitives lists. In October 1999, the United Nations designated al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization.
Bin Laden was the organizer of the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. This resulted in the United States invading Afghanistan, which launched the war on terror. Bin Laden became the subject of nearly a decade-long multi-national manhunt led by the United States. During this period, he hid in several mountainous regions of Afghanistan and later escaped to neighboring Pakistan. On 2 May 2011, Bin Laden was killed by US special operations forces at his compound in Abbottabad. His corpse was buried at the Arabian Sea and he was officially succeeded by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri on 16 June 2011.
Bin Laden grew to become an influential ideologue who inspired several Islamist organizations. He was considered a war hero due to his role in successfully opposing the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and offered an articulate voice and organizational structure to many across the region harboring grievances against Western imperialism, often having approval ratings in some countries higher than those of national leaders. Nonetheless, his justification and orchestration of attacks against civilian targets in the United States, including the September 11 attacks, have made him a hated figure in the West, where public opinion largely views Bin Laden as a figurehead of mass murder.
^Fair, C. Christine; Watson, Sarah J. (18 February 2015). Pakistan's Enduring Challenges. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-8122-4690-2. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Osama bin Laden was a hard-core Salafi who openly espoused violence against the United States in order to achieve Salafi goals.
^Brown, Amy Benson; Poremski, Karen M. (18 December 2014). Roads to Reconciliation: Conflict and Dialogue in the Twenty-first Century. Routledge. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-317-46076-3. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016.
^Osama bin Laden (2007) Suzanne J. Murdico
^Armstrong, Karen (11 July 2005). "The label of Catholic terror was never used about the IRA". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016.
Osamabin Mohammed bin Awad binLaden (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, romanized: Usāma bin Muḥammad bin ʿAwaḍ bin Lādin; 10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011)...
On May 2, 2011, OsamabinLaden, the founder and first leader of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was shot and killed at his compound in the Pakistani...
scrutiny through the activities of OsamabinLaden, the former head of al-Qaeda. The family traces its origins to Awad binLaden from the village of al-Rubat...
Hamza binOsamabin Mohammed bin Awad binLaden (Arabic: حمزة بن أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; 1989 – c. 2017/2019), better known as Hamza binLaden, was...
Abdallah binOsamabin Mohammed bin 'Awad binLaden (in Arabic: عبدالله بن أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن; born c. 1976) is the son of OsamabinLaden and Osama's...
al-Qaeda." American intelligence officials discovered the whereabouts of OsamabinLaden by tracking one of his couriers. Information was collected from Guantánamo...
OsamabinLaden (1957–2011), a militant and founder of Al-Qaeda in 1988, believed Muslims should kill civilians and military personnel from the United...
بن لادن; 1979 – 2009), better known as Saad bin Laden, was one of OsamabinLaden's sons. He continued in his father's footsteps by being active in Al...
confirmed that al-Qaeda leader OsamabinLaden had been killed in his compound in Abbottabad, northeastern Pakistan. BinLaden's death was welcomed by many...
The death of OsamabinLaden on May 2, 2011, gave rise to various conspiracy theories, hoaxes and rumors. These include the ideas that he had died earlier...
There were several video and audio recordings released by OsamabinLaden between 2001 and his death in 2011. Most of the tapes were released directly...
21:00 UTC, Al Jazeera broadcast excerpts allegedly from a videotape of OsamabinLaden addressing the people of the United States; in this video, he accepts...
"The making of OsamabinLaden". salon.com. Retrieved 17 August 2021. Bergen, Peter L. (2 August 2022). The Rise and Fall of OsamaBinLaden. Simon and Schuster...
1960) is a Syrian woman who was the first wife and first cousin of OsamabinLaden, being the daughter of his mother's brother. She is also known as Um...
OsamabinLaden took ideological guidance from prominent militant Islamist scholars and ideologues from the classical to contemporary eras, such as Ibn...
fake OsamabinLaden video using a look-alike, and sells it to TV channels. OsamabinLaden was played by Pradhuman Singh. The film is a spoof on Osama Bin...
OsamabinLaden have appeared in the global media. Among these was an interview by Middle East specialist Robert Fisk. In the interviews, BinLaden acknowledges...
objective to capture or kill OsamabinLaden, the founder and leader of the militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda and binLaden were suspected of being...
OsamabinLaden, a militant Islamist and co-founder of al-Qaeda, in conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, issued two fatawa – in 1996...
founder was Mohammed bin Awad binLaden, the father of OsamabinLaden. The SBG was founded in 1931 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Awad binLaden Sayyid, whose relationship...
was alleged to have provided support for OsamabinLaden. These claims have been made both before and after Osama was found living in a compound in Abbottabad...