THE TERROR PERSON IN 20TH CENTURY

The Osama bin Laden story

 

A look at some milestones Osama bin Laden crossed in his life.

 
 

1957 - Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden is born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 17th of 52 children of Muhammad Awad bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant who built a billion-dollar construction enterprise in Saudi Arabia, and a Syrian mother. 1979 – Osama bin Laden graduates from university in Jeddah with an engineering degree and joins the "jihad," or "holy war," against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. 1980-1989 – In this decade Osama bin Laden acts as the financier for Mujahidin operations in Afghanistan and also organises disparate guerrilla groups into a cohesive entity.

1988 – Osama founds a group that the United States subsequently dubs as al-Qaeda, which in Arabic means "the base" or ''database. The group still carries that nomenclature. 1989 - The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan and bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia to work for the family construction firm, the bin Laden Group. August 1990 - Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, US troops arrive in Saudi Arabia. Osama is outraged at the proximity of US forces to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina and bitterly criticises the Saudi royal family for what he considers to be an act of desecration. 1991- Osama is expelled from Saudi Arabia by its regime and he relocates to Sudan, along with his funds which may have grown to a sizeable $250 million in those times. Here he begins to evolve his network. December 1992 - US forces land in Somalia, as part of a UN-backed humanitarian mission. US officials charge that bin Laden became part of this conflict, training Somali warlords to fight US troops 26 February 1993- A bomb explodes at the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and wounding hundreds. Six Muslim radicals, suspected of having links to bin Laden, are eventually convicted in the US. Osama is named along with many others as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case. October 1993- Eighteen US servicemen in Somalia are killed in an ambush in Mogadishu in an incident later to become infamous as the ''The Black Hawk down incident.'' Osama later says some Arab-Afghans were involved in the killings. 1994- The Saudi government officially strips bin Laden of his citizenship, freezing all the remaining assets he has in the country and he is disowned by his family as well. In the following months, he comes close to Egyptian radicals and is involved with a series of attacks on Egyptian personalities such as president Hosni Mubarak and a 1995 suicide bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan. This focus on Egypt resulted in his alliance with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad movement and its leader Ayman al- Zawahiri. 1995 - A truck bombing at a military base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kills five Americans and two Indians. 1996 – Under intense international pressure Sudan expels Bin Laden. He moves with his family, three wives and children, to Afghanistan, where he is welcomed by the fundamentalist Taliban regime. June 1996- Nineteen US soldiers die in a bombing of the Khobar military complex in Saudi Arabia. August 1996 - Bin Laden declares a holy war or 'jihad' against US forces. 1998 - Bin Laden's al Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led by Ayman al- Zawahiri, merge, according to US sources. August 1998 -- A pair of truck bombs explode outside the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. Some 224 people are killed. October 2000- Bin Laden is linked to the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which leads to the death of 17 sailors and injuries to another 39. September 2001 -- Four US commercial aircraft are hijacked and then crashed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, leading to the deaths of more than 3,000 people. The US government names bin Laden as the prime suspect and says he is wanted dead or alive. November 2001- US forces drop leaflets in Afghanistan offering a $25 million bounty for bin Laden. December 2001 -- Afghan fighters and American and British Special Forces head to the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan to launch an assault after reports of a bin Laden sighting. 25 December 2001- The Pakistan Observer publishes details of bin Laden's funeral quoting an unnamed Taliban leader as saying bin Laden "had a peaceful natural death in mid-December in the vicinity" of the Tora Bora mountains. The report says that his death was the result of a "serious lung complication." 27 December 2001- Afghan officials report that bin Laden is in Pakistan, along with al Qaeda followers. 18 January 2002 - Then Pakistani military dictator and president, Gen Pervez Musharraf, says Osama bin Laden may have died of kidney failure in Afghanistan after becoming separated from a dialysis machine. July 2002 – The London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper says the al-Qaeda leader is in good health, but had been wounded in an attack on his base in Afghanistan last December. December 2009 – US Defence secretary Robert Gates tells ABC that "it's been years" since there was good intelligence on the al Qaeda leader's location. August 2010: US president Barack Obama now reveals that he was briefed on a "possible lead" about the location of bin Laden. April 2011: President Obama now says he thought there was enough credible intelligence by April about Osama's whereabouts, setting in motion the military operation that resulted in his death. 1 May 2011: A team of US Navy SEALS engage Osama bin Laden his wife and children in a gunfight that results in their deaths.