Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden ( transliteration of Arabic: أسامة بن لادن, Usāmah bin Lādin; 1957–2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other attacks worldwide. Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian national until 1994, when his citizenship was revoked. He was a member of the wealthy bin Laden family and studied at King Abdulaziz University, where he was involved in the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. He became a prominent figure in the global jihadist movement in the 1990s and was responsible for organizing a series of attacks against the United States and other Western targets. Bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, by U.S. Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during a covert operation ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama. In Hebrew, his name is transliterated as אוסאמה בן לאדן (Usama ben Laden). In Spanish, he is known as Osama bin Laden, and in Russian, his name is transliterated as Усама бен Ладен (Usama ben Laden).