Osama bin Laden: end of an era

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Osama bin Laden: end of an era

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Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957 in Saudi Arabia.

02 May,2011 10:59 am

Osama was one of more than 50 children of Muhammad bin Laden, a construction tycoon in Saudi Arabia. Osama attended King Abdul Aziz University, where he received a degree in civil engineering.Shortly after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden, like thousands of other Muslims from throughout the world, joined the Afghan resistance, viewing it as his duty to repel the occupation. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, bin Laden returned home as a hero, but he was quickly disappointed with what he perceived as the corruption of the Saudi government and of his own family. His objection to the presence of the US troops in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War led to a growing rift with his countrys leaders.By 1993, he had purportedly formed a network known as al Qaeda, which consisted of militants whom Osama had met in Afghanistan. The group funded and organised several attacks worldwide, including detonating truck bombs against American targets in Saudi Arabia (1996), killing tourists in Egypt (1997), and simultaneously bombing the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1998), which altogether killed nearly 300 people. In 1994 the Saudi government confiscated his passport after accusing him of subversion, and he fled to Sudan, where he organised camps that trained militants in terrorist methodology, and from where he was eventually expelled in 1996. He later returned to Afghanistan, where he received protection from its ruling Taliban.During 1996–98, Osama issued a series of decrees, declaring a holy war against the United States, which he accused, among other things, of looting the natural resources of the Muslim world and aiding and abetting the enemies of Islam, especially Israel. Bin Ladens apparent goal was to draw the United States into a large-scale war in the Muslim world that would overthrow dictatorial Muslim governments and re-establish the Caliphate. To this end, al Qaeda, aided by Osamas considerable wealth, trained militants and funded militant attacks. Al Qaeda had thousands of followers worldwide, in places as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Bosnia, Chechnya, and the Philippines.Following the September 11 attacks, the United States led a coalition in late 2001 that overthrew the Taliban and sent bin Laden into hiding.Nearly three years passed, during which time the US forces hunted for Osama along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He emerged in a videotaped message in October 2004, less than a week before that years US presidential election, in which he claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks.Bin Laden kept on sending periodic video messages from undisclosed locations encouraging his followers to continue their fight against the US.After his election as president of the United States in 2008, Barack Obama made it his goal to re-focus the US military operations on finding bin Laden. According to the US president, a team was put together in August 2010 with the mission of finding bin Laden. The terrorist was killed on May 1st 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan.