The leader of Al Qaeda was the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks
15 years have passed since the fateful evening of May 2, 2011 when United States President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, had been killed near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, in an operation by the US special services and thanks to US intelligence information.
“Justice has been done,” Obama said, explaining that Osama had been killed with a gunshot to the head.
Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden, better known as Osama bin Laden, was considered the historical leader of Al Qaeda. The US State Department had placed a reward of 50 million dollars for his capture ”dead or alive”. Under his leadership Al Qaeda began a more organized and effective terrorist activity, gradually expanding its scope, becoming an international organization, with activities and roots throughout the world, from Africa, to Europe, to the United States. Without talking about Asia, of course.
On 23 February 1988, together with four other signatories, including Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden signed the first ‘fatwa’, a religious proclamation in which it was claimed that ”killing the Americans and their allies, civilian and military, is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do so in every country where possible”. In the name of Islam.
