Key events in the life of the former al-Qaida leader and alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks
Created by StevePro on May 2, 2011
Last updated: 08/22/11 at 04:28 PM
Handwritten journals taken from Osama bin Laden's compound in U.S. military raid that killed him reveal that the al Qaeda mastermind wanted followers to plan an attack on the U.S. for the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, the Washington Post reports.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20062282-503543.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody
US officials on Saturday released extraordinary videos of Osama bin Laden seized in the daring raid that killed Al-Qaeda chief, saying the material shows he was a hands-on leader who took pains to shape his public image.," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters at the Pentagon.
Barack Obama announces Bin Laden has been killed in Pakistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Bin Laden says in taped message that French hostages held in Niger will not be freed unless France pulls troops out of all Muslim lands
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Bin Laden claims in taped message that al-Qaida will kill any American prisoners if the US executes September 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Audio tape message from bin Laden, claiming responsibility for failed Christmas day attempted bombing of US bound plane. US president Barack Obama claims al-Qaida weakened by US actions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Bin Laden urges Muslims to break Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza strip
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Rumours that Bin Laden is dead confounded by first new video in three years, warning US it is vulnerable
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
18-minute video sent to al-Jazeera in which Bin Laden claims credit for the first time for orchestrating 9/11 and attacks Bush days before US presidential election. Claims inspiration for attack was Israeli aircraft bombing tower blocks in the Lebanon in 1982
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Al-Qaida claims responsibility for three suicide car bombs at the Mombasa Paradise resort hotel, killing 15 and wounding 80
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Al-Jazeera broadcasts poor-quality tape claimed to be voice of Bin Laden, praising 9/11 hijackers for changing "the course of history"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
US backed anti-Taliban forces capture Bin Laden's base in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan, but find no trace of Bin Laden
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Hijacked planes destroy the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Centre and target the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000. President George W Bush says he is wanted "dead or alive"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Al-Qaida claims responsibility for strike on US destroyer Cole at Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen soldiers killed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Truck bomb explosions at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 including 12 Americans. Bin Laden added to FBI's "10 most wanted fugitives" list
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Bin Laden leaves Sudan for Afghanistan. Issues fatwa against all US military personnel, faxed to supporters across the world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Saudi Arabia claims Bin Laden links to Riyadh car bombing, six killed including five Americans, 60 injured
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Saudi Arabia revokes his citizenship
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Bin Laden family expels Osama as shareholder in its complex of businesses
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Al-Qaida - "the Base" - established in Afghanistan as centre for radical Muslims joined in opposition to the US, Israel and its allies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Bin Laden involved in Peshawar supporting Arab volunteers to fight Soviets: moves between Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Sudan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
The Soviet War in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan[17] against the indigenous Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Egypt, China and other nations. The Afghan war became a proxy war in the broader context of the late Cold War.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Studies economics and management at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Marries distant relative
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Osama bin Laden's father dies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
Born Osama bin Mohammad bin Awad bin Laden in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the seventh son among dozens of children of a wealthy businessman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-timeline
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