Osama BIn Laden

Osama bin Laden, with some spelling variations, is the name used in English to refer to Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin `Awaḍ bin Lādin (Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎); born 10 March 1957). Variations commonly seen in the English version of the name include "Usama" for "Osama," and/or "bin Ladin" for "bin Laden". Osama bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda.^[1] He has been designated as a terrorist by scholars, journalists, analysts and law enforcement agencies.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} In conjunction with several other Islamic militant leaders, bin Laden issued two fatwas in 1996 and then again in 1998 that Muslims should force the United States and its allies to withdraw their military forces from the Arabian peninsula, by attacking American military and civilian targets.^[12][13]

He has been indicted in United States federal court for his alleged involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, and is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Although bin Laden has not been indicted^[14] for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, he has been reported to have orally claimed responsibility for them in audio and video tapes released to the general public.^[15][16] The attacks involved the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 11, and American Airlines Flight 77; the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York; severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia;^[17] and the deaths of 2,974 people excluding the hijackers.^[18]