Osama bin Laden
![](/Images/godic/202502/19/Osama_bin_Laden_portrait2119.jpg")
![Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden in Kabul in 1997. The AKS-74U in the background is a symbol of the mujadin's victory over the Soviets, since these weapons were captured from Spetsnaz forces.](/Images/godic/202502/19/Hamid_Mir_interviewing_Osama_bin_Laden2119.jpg")
![United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower](/Images/godic/202502/19/UA_Flight_175_hits_WTC_south_tower_9-11_edit2119.jpeg")
![2001 video of bin Laden](/Images/godic/202502/19/2001-12-13-frame-grab-DoD2119.jpg")
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (/oʊˈsɑːmə bɪn moʊˈhɑːmᵻd bɪn əˈwɑːd bɪn ˈlɑːdən/; Arabic:أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن, usāmah bin muḥammad bin 'awaḍ bin lādin; March 10, 1957 – May 2, 2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, the organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. He was a Saudi Arabian, a member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.