Usama ibn Mohammed ibn Awad ibn Ladin (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, usāmah ibn muḥammad ibn ‘awaḍ ibn lādin), often anglicized as Osama bin Laden (/oʊˈsɑːmə bɪn ˈlɑːdən/; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011),[7] was a founder of al-Qaeda, the organization responsible for the September 11 attacks in the United States and many other mass-casualty attacks worldwide.[8][9][10] He was a Saudi Arabian until 1994 (stateless thereafter), a member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.[11]
Osama bin Laden
أسامة بن لادن
Osama bin Laden portrait.jpg
bin Laden c. 1997–1998
1st General Emir of Al-Qaeda
In office
August 11, 1988 – May 2, 2011
Preceded by
Position created
Succeeded by
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Co-founder of Al-Qaeda (With Abdullah Azzam and Ayman al-Zawahiri), 1988
Co-founder of Maktab al-Khidamat, 1984
Personal details
Born
Usama ibn Mohammed ibn Awad ibn Ladin
March 10, 1957
Riyadh, Riyadh Mintaqah, Saudi Arabia
Died
May 2, 2011 (aged 54)
Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Cause of death
Shot by US forces
Nationality
Saudi Arabian (1957–1994)
Stateless (1994–2011)[1]
Height
1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)[6]
Spouse(s)
Najwa Ghanhem
Khadijah Sharif
Khairiah Sabar
Siham Sabar
Amal Ahmed al-Sadah
Children
20 to 26
Religion
Islam (Wahhabism/Salafism)[2][3][4][5]
Military service
Allegiance
Maktab al-Khidamat (1984–1988)
Al-Qaeda (1988–2011)
Years of service
1984–May 2, 2011
Rank
General Emir of Al-Qaeda
Battles/wars
Soviet War
Battle of Jaji
Global War on Terrorism
War in Afghanistan
Battle of Tora Bora
War in North-West Pakistan
Operation Neptune Spear †
Bin Laden's father was Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a Saudi billionaire from Hadhramaut, Yemen.[12] His mother, Alia Ghanem, was from a secular middle-class family based in Latakia, Syria.[13] He was born in Saudi Arabia and studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined Mujahideen forces in Pakistan fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He helped to fund the Mujahideen by funneling arms, money and fighters from the Arab world into Afghanistan, and gained popularity among many Arabs.[14] In 1988, he formed al-Qaeda.[15] He was banished from Saudi Arabia in 1992, and shifted his base to Sudan, until U.S. pressure forced him to leave Sudan in 1996. After establishing a new base in Afghanistan, he declared a war against the United States, initiating a series of bombings and related attacks.[16] Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.[17][18][19]
From 2001 to 2011, bin Laden was a major target of the United States, as the FBI offered a $25 million bounty in their search for him.[20] On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed[21] inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, where he lived with a local family from Waziristan, during a covert operation conducted by members of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group and Central Intelligence Agency SAD/SOG operators on the orders of U.S. President Barack Obama.[22]
