Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. A pan-Islamist and Islamic extremist, bin Laden organized and funded numerous jihadist or anti-Western militants and terrorist attacks worldwide. Al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks in 2001 against the United States directly killed 2,977 victims, and began America's global war on terror. Bin Laden was raised into Sunni Islam by his wealthy family in Saudi Arabia.