Osama bin Laden

The Life and Death of Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden is most known for being the leader of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for four major terrorist attack groups against the United States, from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the September 11 attacks. He has been on the FBI’s top ten list of most wanted fugitives along with the most wanted terrorists list

Osama bin Laden was born in 1975 as the seventh son among 50 siblings. He received all of his education until college in Jeddah and continued to gain his degree from King Abdul-Aziz University in public administration in 1981.

Aside from his commitments to school, he was also very religious. Even as a young child, he was a devout Wahabi Muslim.

After college, Osama bin Laden took part in the Soviet War in Afghanistan. He quickly became experienced and exposed to the military lifestyle and fighting involved, transitioning him into the person he is seen as today. It was around this time where he became to carry a weapon and wear camouflage.

He formed al-Qaeda in 1988 which was an was an organized Islamic faction. The group took up jihadist causes, causing the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan and making bin Laden a hero to Saudi Arabia.

From the 1990’s onward, Osama bin Laden’s organization was found responsible for many terrorist attacks, such as the bombing attacks of 1992 in Aden as well as the Luxor massacre in 1997. While capturing bin Laden had been an U.S. objective since the Clinton administration, it was the September 11 attacks that fueled the search for bin Laden.

On May 2, 2011, nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden was finally found and killed. Under the authorization of President Barack Obama, an American team of United States Navy SEALs carried out Operation Neptune Star, which was to capture or kill bin Laden without injuring any civilians. This operation had been in planning since September 2010, and was given the go-head on May 1, 2011

Osama bin Laden’s body was then buried at sea within 24 hours of his death as a religious burial. However, many prominent Islamic clerics disagreed with this, as a sea burial was only for certain circumstances, such as no one claiming the body. While others disagreed with this sentiment, it was agreed that there was very little cultural sensitivity involved in the burial.