Facts Sorrounding The Death Of Osama BinLaden

Bin Laden was one of more than 50 children of Muhammad bin Laden, a self - made billionaire who, after immigrating to Saudi Arabia from Yemen as a labourer, rose to direct major construction projects for the Saudi royal family. By the time of Muhammad's death in an airplane accident in 1967, his company had become one of the largest construction firms in the Middle East, and the bin Laden family had developed a close relationship with the Saudi royal family.

Osama bin Laden studied business administration at King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah, where it is likely that he also received instruction in religious studies from Muḥammad Quṭb, brother of the Islamic revivalist Sayyid Quṭb, and Abdullah Azzam, a militant leader. His time at the university was key to his future role as leader of al - Qaeda, not only in influencing his radical views but also in providing him with the skill to market al - Qaeda.

In the early 1990s bin Laden and his al - Qaeda network began to formulate an agenda of violent struggle against the threat of U. S. dominance in the Muslim world. Bin Laden publicly praised other groups' attacks on Americans, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. In 1994, as bin Laden expanded his group's infrastructure in Sudan and trained Islamic militants to participate in conflicts around the world, Saudi Arabia revoked his citizenship and froze his assets, forcing him to rely on outside sources for funding.

In 1996, under heavy international pressure, Sudan expelled bin Laden, and he returned to Afghanistan, where he received protection from its ruling Taliban militia. Later that year bin Laden issued the first of two fatwās (Arabic: "religious opinions") declaring a holy war against the United States, which he accused, among other things, of looting the natural resources of the Muslim world, occupying the Arabian Peninsula, including the holy sites of Islam, and supporting governments servile to U. S. interests in the Middle East. Bin Laden's apparent goal was to draw the United States into a large - scale war in the Muslim world that would overthrow the existing world order and establish a single Islamic state.

Meanwhile, U. S. forces had continued to hunt for bin Laden, who was still thought possibly to be hiding either in Afghanistan or in the tribal regions of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan. U. S. intelligence eventually located him in Pakistan, living in a secure compound in Abbottabad, a medium - sized city near Islamabad. On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was killed when a small U. S. force transported by helicopters raided the compound. His body, identified visually at the site of the raid, was taken out of Pakistan by U. S. forces for examination and DNA identification and soon after was given a sea burial. Hours after its confirmation, bin Laden's death was announced by Obama in a televised address. Several days after Obama's announcement, al - Qaeda released a statement publicly acknowledging bin Laden's death and vowing revenge.

Later that month al - Qaeda released a final audio message said to be from bin Laden, purportedly recorded by him shortly before he was killed.