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Profile of Osama bin Laden

Sat Sept 15 2001 - 01:00
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden

Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden honed his guerrilla skills in the 1980s commanding Arab fighters funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency fighting alongside US-backed Afghan guerrillas against Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan.

His war with America is believed to have begun after US forces deployed in Saudi Arabia during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis that followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Mr bin Laden saw their presence as desecrating the land of Islam. He also blames the suffering of the Palestinian people on US support
for Israel.

Key facts about bin Laden

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  • The seventh son of a Saudi businessman who made a fortune from Saudi Arabia's oilfuelled construction boom, Mr bin Laden was born in 1957. His father died when he was 13 and his first marriage was to a Syrian cousin at the age of 17.
  • His involvement in Afghanistan began almost immediately after the Soviet invasion in 1979, with a trip to Pakistan, where he met refugees and opposition leaders. He returned home and began raising funds for the Afghan resistance.
  • In 1984 he set up a guesthouse in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar to channel Arab volunteers to the Afghan guerrillas. With his wealth, he next established camps inside Afghanistan and the number of Arab fighters surged.
  • After a period in Sudan, he moved permanently to Afghanistan.
  • Saudi Arabia stripped him of citizenship in 1994.
  • US authorities have a $5 million bounty on his head. He says US efforts to arrest him and hurt him financially have had little effect.
  • Mr bin Laden is believed to live under tight security near the southern Afghan town of Kandahar, the spiritual capital of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, or in the eastern town of Jalalabad.
  • An aide to Mr bin Laden says he denies any role in the Tuesday terror attacks in the United States.
  • The Taliban say Mr bin Laden has been under surveillance for the past two years and he has been deprived of communication means over the same period. The Taliban deny he has been detained, saying his status has not changed.

Al Qaeda

  • Al Qaeda was formed by Islamic fighters who battled Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s.
  • Radical factions from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, other Gulf states, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Algeria, Morocco and elsewhere formed a loose network after the 1991 Gulf War.
  • The group is a magnet for radical Muslims seeking a more fundamentalist brand of government in their home countries and joined in common hatred of the United States, Israel and moderate Muslim governments.
  • Cells of the network have been identified or suspected in countries throughout the Middle East and Africa, in Asian nations such as Malaysia and the Philippines, in Ecuador, Bosnia, Albania, Britain, Canada and the United States.
  • Analysts say Egyptians comprise the biggest single block of Al Qaeda, which is believed to have as many as 3,000 members.
  • Members communicate through encrypted telephones and e-mails and other secure methods. They travel a lot and pass messages face-to-face, analysts say.
  • Mr bin Laden is estimated to have about $300 million in personal financial assets with which he funds his network of militants. The group is also funded by businesses such as fisheries, jewellery, and construction.

Attacks for which US suspect the involvement of Mr bin Laden

  • February 26th, 1993, bombing of World Trade Center killed six people and injured more than 1,000. Bin Laden believed by U.S. officials to be linked to the blast, the first to prompt fears that Middle East extremism had made its way to the United States. - In August 1996 Bin Laden issued a fatwa, or religious decree, that US military personnel should be killed.
  • The United States says bin Laden is the prime suspect in bombings which killed 24 US servicemen in the Saudi cities of Riyadh and Khobar in 1995 and 1996.
  • The United States accused bin Laden of masterminding the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people and wounded 4,000.
  • US officials said his network is suspected of being involved in the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole warship in Yemen. Seventeen US servicemen were killed.