Osama bin Laden
Learn about Osama bin Laden — the al-Qaeda leader who masterminded the September 11 attacks and became the most wanted man in the world.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (1957–2011) was the founder and leader of al-Qaeda, the Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and reshaped global politics. Born into one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, bin Laden became the world's most wanted fugitive and the symbol of a new kind of transnational terrorism.
Bin Laden's radicalization began during the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–1989), where he helped organize Arab volunteers fighting alongside Afghan mujahideen — with covert American support. After the war, he channeled this network into al-Qaeda ('The Base'), turning it against the United States, which he viewed as a corrupt power occupying Muslim holy lands, propping up despotic regimes, and supporting Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
The 9/11 attacks achieved bin Laden's goal of provoking a massive American response in the Muslim world, but the 'War on Terror' eventually destroyed al-Qaeda's infrastructure. Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011. His legacy includes not only the attacks themselves but the responses they provoked: wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the expansion of surveillance states, rising Islamophobia, and enduring questions about how terrorism should be confronted without creating the conditions for more.