Osama Bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was the founder and first general emir of the al-Qaeda militant organization. A pan-Islamist and Islamic extremist, bin Laden organized and funded numerous jihadist or anti-Western militants and terrorist attacks worldwide. Al-Qaeda's September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11) against the United States killed 2,977 victims.
He aided the Afghan mujahideen in the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), and then the Bosnian mujahideen in the Bosnian War (1992–1995). He played a role in starting both the Algerian Civil War (1992–2002), in which he aided the GSPC, and the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), in which he aided the Taliban. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, later named the Islamic State of Iraq, fought in the Iraq War (2003–2011).
Bin Laden was raised into Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia. His family was wealthy, having financial ties to the country's royal House of Saud. In 1979, he left to help mujahideen repel the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and in 1984, co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat to recruit foreigners into the rebellion. In 1988, bin Laden founded al-Qaeda to enact violent jihad worldwide. The Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and he returned to Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden's public beliefs led to his expulsion from Saudi Arabia in 1991. He then moved with al-Qaeda to Sudan. In 1996, Sudan also expelled him, and he moved al-Qaeda to Afghanistan, which soon came under Taliban control.