HISTORY
Time.com
EPA / Corbis
Roots
Bin Laden was born in 1957, reportedly the 17th of the 57 children of Mohammed bin Laden, the owner of the largest construction company in Saudi Arabia. He was raised under conservative Wahhabi tenets, and, while enrolled at King Abdel Aziz University in Jidda, developed a belief in pan-Islamicism, a philosophy that stresses a united, Islamic world. This photo was taken in 1988.
Corbis
Jihad
In the late 1970s, after Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union, bin Laden traveled to the country to raise money for the Mujaheddin. Through his family connections he was able to deliver heavy equipment — used to build roads, tunnels and training camps — to the Mujahaddin. Exiled from his native country for criticizing the Saudi King — for allowing US troops to stay in the Kingdom — bin Laden remained in Afghanistan, where he created his own training camp and, with the help of his former college professor Abdullah Azzam, founded al-Qaeda, meaning "solid base", to offer religious training to the Mujaheddin. Photo taken in 1998.
Reuters
Embassy Bombings
In 1998, Al Qaeda sympathizers orchestrated two virtually simultaneous attacks on American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya (above), and in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Reuters
Ready to Die
It is estimated that bin Laden's camps trained between 3,000 and 5,000 guerillas prior to 2001. Here, fighters in an undated Al Qaeda video raise their weapons.
Corbis
Study
Shortly after the embassy bombings bin Laden said, "If the instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans in order to liberate al-Aksa Mosque and the Holy Ka'aba is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal."
US Navy / Reuters / Corbis
The USS Cole
In October 2000, a boat filled with explosives crashed into an American warship in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed in an attack widely attributed to al-Qaeda.
Doug Menuez / Corbis
9/11
The most devastating of all al-Qaeda attacks claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
Bernd Obermann / Corbis
Dead or Alive
As a result of the events of September 11, 2001, bin Laden overnight became the most wanted criminal in the world. Within a month, American troops were on the ground in Afghanistan, committed to capturing him and his Taliban allies.
Lynsey Addario / Corbis
Target Audience
At the same time he was being hunted, bin Laden was regarded as a hero in many parts of the Muslim world.
Salah Malkawi / Getty
In Hiding
In the years after 9/11, it is believed that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, hid in the mountains along the Afghanistan - Pakistan border.
Broadcast
As America fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Bin Laden periodically released audio and video recordings (like this one from 2007) calling for the destruction of the United States and its allies.
Adrees Latif / Reuters / Corbis
Infamous
On May 1, 2011, President Obama announced that bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan.