Osama bin Laden

(1957 - 2011)

Osama bin Laden said of his cohorts’ dedication, “These young men—I pray that God will accept them and those of them who have died throughout this blessed jihad as martyrs—have left the material world and come to these mountains and this land…to face bombardment by American cruise missiles.” Three years later he and other Al Qaeda operatives perpetrated the attacks of September 11, 2001. Bin Laden was shot and killed by American forces inside his residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.