The life and death of Osama bin Laden
About Osama bin Laden, the world learned 11 of September 2001, when more than 3 killed thousands of people as a result of attacks in the US and hundreds were injured.
For three years, a resident of Saudi Arabia, a dissident has become the person who caused the greatest hatred and fear in the world.
Osama Bin Laden was born in 1957, he was 17 of 52’s children of Mohamed Bin Laden, a construction millionaire who built about 80% of Saudi Arabia’s roads.
After the death of his father, who crashed in a helicopter in 1968, young Osama inherited millions of dollars, although much less than the published figure - 250 $ million. Studying engineering at the University of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden communicated with teachers and students of a more conservative branch of Islam. He became a supporter of Islamic fundamentalism, as a counterweight, as he believed, to the corrupt West.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 had forever changed the life of Osama Bin Laden. Over the years 10 he fought with the Mujahideen.
Experts say the CIA played an active role in training and supplying weapons Mujahideen, including Bin Laden. The end of the war dramatically changed his views. Hatred of Moscow was transferred to Washington, when during the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia, where there are two holy cities of Muslims, 300 of thousands of American soldiers settled down. Bin Laden promised to avenge such blasphemy.
Under his influence, many anti-American groups in the Middle East. Under pressure from Americans, Saudi Arabia in 1994 deprived him of his citizenship. After a short period in Sudan in January 1996, he returned to Afghanistan.
In a country where anarchy reigned, there was a wide range of Islamic groups, including the Taliban, who seized Kabul in the 9 months. Billionaire Bin Laden’s fortunes, which grew thanks to profitable investments, allowed him, through al-Qaida’s network, to finance and control a transnational alliance of militants.
Sometimes he was only an intermediary, financing and providing technical support for the operation, sometimes he organized his own campaigns. In February 1998, he issued a fatwa (religious law), which claimed that the murder of Americans and their allies is the responsibility of Muslims.
Two months later, as a result of bombings in US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, 224 people were killed and about 5 thousands were injured. He was the prime suspect in the attack. Since then, Bin Laden has become the main problem of America. The FBI announced a 25 million dollar reward for its head. The United States fired 75 cruise missiles at training camps in eastern Afghanistan, but did not have time for one hour - Bin Laden fled.
He is also accused of involvement in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, a car bomb in Riyadh and an attack on a US base in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in the death of 19 American soldiers.
“I always kill Americans because they kill us when we attack Americans, we do not harm other people,” said Bin Laden. But in the case of the attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, most of the wounded were Africans, not Americans.
At one time, he offered Kazakhstan to sell him tactical nuclear weapons. Not surprisingly, both the United States and Israel are believed to have sent groups to kill him.
And then there were the September 11 attacks 2001.
Two stolen planes destroyed the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. Total killed more than 3 thousand people, which led to the operation against the Taliban under the leadership of the United States.
Allied troops entered Afghanistan at the end of 2001. Then they believed that Bin Laden could have died during the battle for the caves of Torah Bora. In fact, he fled to Pakistan, where he achieved cult status like a pop star.
In February, 2003, Al-Jazeera received a tape of what was claimed to be his voice. He was last seen at the end of 2001, when he fled from the caves of Thor Bora.
In Pakistan, he was granted asylum by tribes loyal to the Taliban. 2003 year was a turning point in the hunt for Bin Laden after the arrest in Pakistan of Khalif Sheikh Mahommed, who was the organizer of the attacks in New York.
In 2004, the Pakistani army launched a massive search operation for Bin Laden along the Afghan border. But a year later, the then leader of Pakistan acknowledged that they did not find Bin Laden.
Despite the numerous audio recordings of Bin Laden, his video appearances were rare. Observers say that the time of their publication was designed to influence the point of view of voters in the West - for example, in 2004 year - in the year when there were explosions in Madrid, or before the elections in the United States. The second entry coincided with the 6 anniversary of the September 11 attacks, to stop the rumors about his death, which then went.
1 May 2011 US President Barack Obama reported that Americans killed Osama Bin Laden at the estate in the city of Abbottabadi, which is north of Islamabad.
For his supporters, Bin Laden was a freedom fighter against the United States and Israel, for the West he was a terrorist who killed thousands of people.
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