Bin Laden Spent 30 Years Fighting, Then Hiding

Monday, 2 May 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama has announced that the world's most wanted terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden, has been killed. He was 54.

After the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, then-U.S. president George W. Bush vowed to capture bin Laden – the man the president believed was behind the attacks.

Bin Laden first publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks in a video released in October 2004. He eluded attempts to capture him, disappearing along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and sparking perhaps the largest manhunt in history.

But bin Laden's image as the world's most-wanted terrorist stands in sharp contrast to his peaceful and comfortable upbringing.

He was one of more than 50 children of a wealthy Saudi construction magnate and was raised in the opulence of Saudi Arabia's upper-class.

Bin Laden went on to pursue an engineering degree and seemed prepared to work in the family business.

However, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden left home to join the fight against the Soviets.

He initially provided logistical support for new recruits to the Afghan mujahedin Islamic fighters – the same ones supported by the United States. But in the mid-1980s, bin Laden decided to use his share of his family's wealth to form his own militia force, which later became known as “al-Qaida” – Arabic for “The Base.”

In 1990, Saudi Arabia invited the U.S. to deploy troops within the country following Iraq's invasion of the oil-rich state of Kuwait. Bin Laden saw the arrival of non-Muslims on land considered holy in Islam as an affront to his religion. He protested strongly against the move, resulting in his expulsion from Saudi Arabia in 1991.

Bin Laden found refuge in Sudan, where he is said to have orchestrated attacks on the U.S. military in Somalia and Saudi Arabia. He returned to Afghanistan in 1996 after the Sudanese expelled him due to pressure from the U.S.

While there, he continued his campaign against the United States by allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. His popularity grew among disaffected Arabs and those unhappy with U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Stopping bin Laden became the top priority for the United States following the 2001 attacks, a goal that Mr. Obama says remained the top priority under his leadership.

The Taliban refused to surrender the al-Qaida leader to U.S. authorities, prompting the United States to go to war in Afghanistan. The U.S. ousted the Taliban in December 2001, and Osama bin Laden went into hiding.

In his years at large, bin Laden released a series of audiotapes condemning the United States.

Now, nine years, seven months and 20 days since the September 11 attacks, Mr. Obama says “justice has been done” after a U.S. strike team killed bin Laden in a firefight during a raid on his hideout in Pakistan.