Osama bin Laden: Timeline

1988 — After bankrolling and leading an Arab force that aided the Afghan Mujahedeen in their nine-year war against Soviet invaders, bin Laden establishes al-Qaida (“the Base”). Its goal is to oust Western forces from the Islamic world.

Feb. 15, 1989 — Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan.

August 1990 — Iraq invades Kuwait. Bin Laden offers to the Saudis that the men and equipment he had used in Afghanistan could defend the kingdom. He is “shocked,” a family friend says, to learn that the Americans will defend it instead. The Saudi government restricts him to Jiddah, fearing his outspokenness will offend the Americans. Bin Laden flees to Sudan and begins setting up legitimate businesses that would help finance al-Qaida.

Dec. 29, 1992 — A bomb explodes in a hotel in Aden, Yemen, where U.S. troops had been staying while on their way to Somalia. The troops had already left, and the bomb kills two Austrian tourists. U.S. intelligence officials later came to believe this was the first bin Laden attack.

Feb. 26, 1993 — Terrorists linked to al-Qaida carry out the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York. The detonation of an explosives-laden truck in an underground parking garage fails to bring down the towers but kills six people and injures thousands.

Oct. 3-4, 1993 — Al-Qaida-trained terrorists are involved in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, against U.S. forces, which results in the downing of U.S. Black Hawk helicopters.

1994 — The Saudi government freezes bin Laden’s assets and revokes his citizenship.

February 1994 — Bin Laden’s brothers publicly denounce him. He loses his shares in the family businesses and is cut off from all dividend and loan payments.

1995 — Belgian investigators discover a manual for terrorists on a CD. The preface is dedicated to bin Laden.

November 1995 — Seven people die when a truck bomb explodes at a Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh that is operated by the U.S. The attack comes three months after bin Laden, in a letter to Saudi King Fahd, outlines the sins of the Saudi government and calls for a campaign of guerrilla attacks to drive the U.S. out of Saudi Arabia.

May 1996 — Before being beheaded, the men accused in the Riyadh bombing are forced to read a confession in which they acknowledge a connection to bin Laden. Under pressure from the Saudis, the U.S. and other nations, Sudan expels bin Laden. He relocates to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and forms a close relationship with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader. Bin Laden also starts paying the Taliban for protection.

June 1996 — A truck bomb destroys the Khobar Towers, a U.S. military residence in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Nineteen soldiers are killed.

August 1996 — From the Afghan mountain stronghold of Tora Bora, bin Laden issues his “Declaration of War Against the Americans Who Occupy the Land of the Two Holy Mosques,” his name for Saudi Arabia.

1996 — U.S. officials describe bin Laden as “one of the most significant financial sponsors of Islamic extremism in the world.”

August 1996 —A federal grand jury begins meeting in New York City to consider charges against bin Laden.

March 1997 — A CNN crew interviews bin Laden. “It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose agents on us to rule us and then wants us to agree to all this,” he says, describing the U.S. “If we refuse to do so, it says we are terrorists. When Palestinian children throw stones against the Israeli occupation, the U.S. says they are terrorists. Whereas when Israel bombed the United Nations building in Lebanon while it was full of children and women, the U.S. stopped any plan to condemn Israel. At the same time that they condemn any Muslim who calls for his rights, they receive the top official of the Irish Republican Army at the White House as a political leader. Wherever we look, we find the U.S. as the leader of terrorism and crime in the world.”

February 1998 — Bin Laden declares it the duty of every Muslim to “kill Americans wherever they are found.”

June 1998 — The federal grand jury convened in New York two years earlier charges bin Laden with conspiracy to attack the U.S. abroad, for heading al-Qaida and for financing terrorist activities around the world.

Aug. 7, 1998 — Bombs explode simultaneously at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Nairobi bomb kills 213 people and wounds 4,500. The Dar es Salaam bomb kills 11 and wounds 85. The attacks come on the eighth anniversary of the U.S.’ order sending troops into the Persian Gulf region. After the bombings, President Bill Clinton declares bin Laden “Public Enemy No. 1.” Two weeks later, the U.S. retaliates with cruise missiles against what were thought to be terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, which officials contended— erroneously, it turned out — was producing chemical weapons for al-Qaida.

Nov. 4, 1998 — A New York grand jury hands up an indictment against bin Laden, charging him with conspiring against the U.S. in connection with the embassy attacks. The original indictment also states that al-Qaida had agreed to aid Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in developing weapons, but the statement is removed from a superseding indictment.

December 1998 — In a Time magazine interview, bin Laden says: “To call us Enemy No. 1 or Enemy No. 2 does not hurt us. Osama bin Laden is confident that the Islamic nation will carry out its duty.”

January 1999 — The U.S. government issues a superseding indictment charging al-Qaida as an international terrorist organization in a conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens.

June 1999 — The FBI adds bin Laden to its 10 most wanted list.

Oct. 12, 2000 — Two Yemeni operatives of al-Qaida ram a skiff full of explosives into the hull of the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring more than 30.

June 19, 2001 — A videotape is released by al-Qaida showing bin Laden and his supporters training at their al-Farouq base in Afghanistan. Bin Laden is filmed kneeling in flowing white robes and squeezing the trigger of an AK-47.

Sept. 11, 2001 — Hijacked airliners crash into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane, meant to fly into the White House, instead crashes in a Pennsylvania field. According to the 9/11 Commission’s report, deaths totaled more than 2,600 at the World Trade Center, 125 at the Pentagon and 256 in the four planes.

Sept. 13, 2001 — President George W. Bush says apprehending bin Laden is his top goal. “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden,” he says. “It is our No. 1 priority and we will not rest until we find him.”

Oct. 7, 2001 — The war in Afghanistan begins. Shortly after the first U.S. missiles hit Kabul, television news channels air footage of bin Laden that was clearly pre-recorded. Dressed in combat fatigues, he says: “I say these events have split the whole world into two camps: the camp of the faithful and the camp of the infidels. Every Muslim should support his religion.”

November 2001 — U.S. soldiers start distributing leaflets in Afghanistan offering a $25 million reward for bin Laden. The bounty is later raised to $27 million with donations from the Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association.

December 2001 — The Battle at Tora Bora rages in Afghanistan. Before escaping U.S. capture, bin Laden signs a last will and testament on Dec. 14, 2001.

Dec. 13, 2001 — The Pentagon releases a video it claims shows bin Laden discussing the Sept. 11 attacks with guests at an al-Qaida dinner at a house in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In the tape, he says the attack surpassed his expectations.

Dec. 26, 2001 — In a tape filmed to mark three months since Sept. 11, a tired-looking and gaunt bin Laden appears to take credit for the attacks. The background is a brown blanket used to hide any clues that could disclose his location.

Oct. 12, 2002 — More than 200 people, citizens of 21 countries, are killed in a terrorist bombing on the resort island of Bali. The blast is attributed to Jemaah Islamiah, a pan-Asian network of Muslim extremists with ties to al-Qaida.

Oct. 23, 2002 — About 50 armed Chechen militants seize a theater in Moscow where more than 800 people are gathered for a performance. More than 120 hostages die when security services gas the building.

Nov. 12, 2002 — Al-Jazeera broadcasts an audiotape purported to be by bin Laden in which he praises terrorist attacks on Bali, in Moscow and against a French tanker off the coast of Yemen. He links Australia’s role in East Timor to the attack in Bali. Doubts later emerge about the tape’s authenticity.

Feb. 11, 2003 — Al-Jazeera broadcasts an audiotape of bin Laden calling on Iraqis to carry out suicide attacks against U.S. forces. Washington calls it evidence of an alliance between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein.

March 20, 2003 — The U.S. invades Iraq.

Sept. 10, 2003 — Al-Jazeera airs a videotape that appears to show a gaunt bin Laden walking with his second-in-command, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, through mountainous terrain. The two men refer to the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

March 11, 2004 — Ten bombs go off almost simultaneously in trains carrying commuters into Madrid. The attacks kill 190 people and wound about 2,000.

April 15, 2004 — In a purported tape of bin Laden, the speaker offers a truce to European nations that decide not to “interfere” in Muslim nations but rules out any such deal for the U.S.

May 7, 2004 — A recorded message attributed to bin Laden offers 10 kilograms of gold to anyone who kills the U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, or U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Oct. 29, 2004 — A videotape surfaces days before the U.S. presidential election in which bin Laden admits responsibility for Sept. 11.

July 7, 2005 — Four explosions strike London’s public transit system, killing more than 35 people and wounding at least 700.

Jan. 19, 2006 — After more than a year of silence from bin Laden, a tape purportedly recorded by the al-Qaida leader warns that a new wave of terror attacks are in preparation. It also offers a truce to the U.S. if it withdraws from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Feb. 20, 2006 — A new, more complete version of the Jan. 19 tape appears on a militant website in Egypt. In it, bin Laden vows to never be captured alive.

May 24, 2006 — A message purported to be from bin Laden claims that Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man convicted in the U.S. in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, had nothing to do with the plot. Moussaoui was sentenced to six consecutive life terms for not telling the FBI about the plot.

June 30, 2006 — An audiotape purported to be from bin Laden eulogizes Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, who was killed in a U.S. air strike June 7.

January 2010 — An audiotape allegedly from bin Laden claims responsibility for an attempt to blow up a plane en route to Michigan on Christmas Day 2009, and it warns the U.S. of more attacks.

May 1, 2011 — Bin Laden killed in a U.S. raid on his compound in Pakistan.