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Osama bin Laden
Photo: Hamid Mir, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons23

Osama bin Laden

Founder of al-Qaeda (1957–2011)

Osama bin Laden (c. 1957/1958 – 2 May 2011) was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda, a Salafi jihadist militant organization, from 1988 until his killing in 2011.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Osama bin Laden (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Mar 10, 1957, died May 2, 2011.1

About

He was one of the most significant supporters of Islamic terrorism and jihadist militant movements around the world, aiming to found a pan-Islamic caliphate and end Western nations' interventionism in the Middle East. Most notably, he helped orchestrate al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001, which directly killed 2,977 victims and caused the U.S.-led global war on terror. He also led al-Qaeda and its allies in numerous wars, including the Second Afghan Civil War (1992–1996), Bosnian War (1992–1995), and Algerian Civil War (1992–2002), the latter of which he helped instigate.

Born into the wealthy bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden used his personal fortune to build a network that trained militants in Europe, West Asia, and Africa. He moved from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) to help Afghan Muslims resist the Soviet Union's occupation of the country. In 1984, he co-founded Maktab al-Khidamat to recruit foreigners into the Afghan mujahideen resistance. In 1988, he founded al-Qaeda. Following the Soviet withdrawal, he commanded a mujahideen force during the First Afghan Civil War (1989–1992).

Upon returning to Saudi Arabia, bin Laden publicly promoted anti-Western causes and opposed the Saudi royal family, leading to his expulsion from the country in 1991. He went back to Afghanistan, then moved to Sudan later that year. In 1993, al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center complex in New York City. In 1996, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan; Afghanistan came under Taliban control later that year. Al-Qaeda allied with the Taliban, and they collaborated in the Third Afghan Civil War (1996–2001). In 1996 and 1998, bin Laden declared holy war on all Americans. Al-Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the U.S. and United Nations officially declared bin Laden a terrorist. That year, al-Qaeda also began an ongoing insurgency in Yemen.

The 9/11 attacks were planned primarily by bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and certain intelligence sources allege they were aided by Saudi Arabia, despite bin Laden's prior expulsion. Nineteen al-Qaeda members hijacked four American passenger planes, intending to crash them into U.S. landmarks. American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon in Virginia, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before reaching the hijackers' unknown target in Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center towers collapsed after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. An estimated 25,000 injuries, as well as 5,000 deaths from inhalation exposure, have been attributed to the attacks.

From Wikipedia’s article on Osama bin Laden, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • 1968 to 1976Al-Thager Model School3
  • 1979King Abdulaziz University economics3
  • 1981King Abdulaziz University public administration3
  • Date not recordedThomas Sprigg Wootton High School3
  • Date not recordedBrummana High School3

Osama bin Laden's exact date of birth is unknown. In a 1998 interview, he reportedly gave 10 March 1957 as his date of birth. However, this date did not appear in the transcript of the interview. Saudi men of his generation generally did not know their exact dates of birth because birthdays were not celebrated. The authorities arbitrarily assigned the same date of birth to many men in passports and other official documents. In a 1991 interview, bin Laden gave the month of Rajab in the Islamic year 1377, which could be 1957 or 1958. His first wife, Najwa, gave 15 February 1957 as his date of birth. Researchers generally agree that his birthplace was Riyadh, the city he identified as his birthplace, though FBI and Interpol documents once listed it as Jeddah.

Osama's father Muhammad was born in modern Yemen and his mother, Hamida al-Attas (born A'alia Ghanem), was born in Syria. Muhammad was married 22 times and al-Attas was his tenth wife. Osama was the 17th of Muhammad's approximately 52 children, and the only one by his union to al-Attas.

The bin Laden family originated in Yemen, and in the early 20th century, Muhammad bin Ladin moved to Saudi Arabia. He founded the Saudi Binladin Group in 1931, and by the 1950s became immensely wealthy through his connection to the Saudi royal family, the House of Saud. The royals gave the Saudi Binladin Group the exclusive right to construct religious buildings in Saudi Arabia, and later, the company became the royal family's official construction contractor. Muhammad's sons attended the same schools as the royal children.

Six months after Osama was born, he and his parents moved to the Saudi region of Hejaz and divorced afterward in 1960. He lived in Hejaz until adulthood. In the early 1960s, his mother married Mohammed al-Attas, an employee of the Saudi Binladin Group. The two had four children, and raised them alongside Osama. Muhammad bin Ladin died in 1967. Osama's inheritance was estimated in 2000 at about $300 million and in 2001 at $50–60 million, not adjusting for inflation. As of 2026, the bin Laden family still owns the Saudi Binladin Group, and still has ties to the House of Saud.

From 1968 to 1976, Osama attended the prestigious Al-Thager Model School in Jeddah, and then an English-language course in Oxford, England, in 1971. Decades later, he said that when he had been asked in 1972 to continue his studies in England, he refused on the grounds that "a pious Muslim should not go to the lands of the West. I had the impression that they were people of loose morals." He said that in general, the British were "morally degenerate".

In the late 1970s, he started studying economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. One source claims that bin Laden left university during his third year without attaining a degree. Others say that he either earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979, or in public administration in 1981. In university, bin Laden's main interest was Islam. He studied the Quran and jihad, and did charity work.

From Wikipedia’s article on Osama bin Laden (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: jihadist, businessperson, terrorist, civil engineer, building contractor.10

  • 1988 to 2011General Emir of Al-Qaeda7
  • 1988 to 2011Chair, Al-Qaeda9
  • Date not recordedFounded Maktab al-Khidamat4
  • Date not recordedFounded Al-Qaeda5
  • Date not recordedFounded Wadi al Aqiq Company6
  • Date not recordedChair, Al Qaeda in Georgia8

Personal life

  • BornMar 10, 1957, Riyadh11 12
  • DiedMay 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad (2005-2012)13
  • CitizenshipSaudi Arabia, statelessness14 15
  • ResidenceOsama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad (2005-2012)16
  • SpousesNajwa Ghanem 1974 to 200117; Khadijah Sharif married 198317 18; Khairiah Sabar 1985 to 201117; Siham Sabar 1987 to 201117 19; Amal Ahmed al-Sadah 2000 to 201117
  • Children2620

Adult bin Laden was described as thin, tall, and weighing about 73 kilograms (160 lb). He usually walked with a cane, and may have had some type of kidney disease. Nasser al-Bahri, bin Laden's bodyguard from 1997 to 2001, described him as a frugal man and a strict father, who took his family to picnics in the desert, and did recreational shooting with them. Al-Bahri said that bin Laden once played association football and volleyball, and that when the two knew each other, bin Laden was obsessed with black horses, and the English football club Arsenal. Bin Laden also wrote jihadist poetry.

In 1974, bin Laden married Najwa Ghanem, his first cousin. They had eleven children, and separated days before 9/11. In 1983, he married Khadijah Sharif. They had three children, then divorced in 1993. He married Khairiah Sabir in 1985, and they had a son, Hamza, who may now be an al-Qaeda leader. Osama married Siham Sabir in 1987, and they had four children. His fifth marriage was to an unnamed woman in 1996; it was annulled within days of the ceremony. In 2000, he married Amal al-Sadah, and they had five children.

From Wikipedia’s article on Osama bin Laden (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Politics

Religious and political views

Bin Laden was reportedly an avid reader, and often quoted Bernard Montgomery and Charles de Gaulle. He was raised into Sunni Islam, and subscribed to the Athari school of Islamic theology which interprets the Quran literally, rather than figuratively. For religious reasons, he was against gambling, homosexuality, intoxicants, masturbation, music, premarital sex, and usury. He once wrote a letter to the American public (released posthumously) urging them to work with then-United States president Barack Obama's administration to prevent further climate change, and "save humanity" from the greenhouse gas emissions "that threaten its destiny".

The Islamic world and systems of government

Western sources consider bin Laden an Islamic extremist. The German intelligence agency BfV writes:

"Islamist extremism [believes that] Islam is not only a personal or private affair, but that it should also rule social life and the political order or regulate at least part of it. This is in clear contradiction to the principles of the sovereignty of the people, the separation of state and religion, freedom of expression and general equal rights".

The latter secularist ideas were adopted by much of the Islamic world over the 20th century. Thus, strict adherence to Islamic morality-based social rules, like those of Sharia (Islamic law), declined among Muslims. Islamic fundamentalists decried these liberalizing trends. In university, bin Laden read the works of multiple Islamists, including Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, his then-teacher; Sayyid Qutb; and several Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

The leading interpretations of Islam in Saudi Arabia are Salafism and Wahhabism, although most Saudis do not refer to themselves Wahhabi. While bin Laden was labeled a "Wahhabi" in 2001, some researchers dispute the characterization. Wahhabi ideology, including the holiness of violence against non-Salafis, was taught directly to bin Laden and other students in Saudi schools from around the 1970s to 2010s.

Bin Laden promoted Islamism through his militant organization al-Qaeda, which has committed numerous terrorist attacks worldwide. Its attacks against the U.S. on 11 September 2001 led the "threat of militant Islamic terrorism [to take] center stage" in Middle Eastern politics. While bin Laden led al-Qaeda, it organized ideology classes that listed four principal enemies of Islam: Shia Islam, heretics of Islam, the U.S., and Israel. Bin Laden believed the Islamic world was in crisis due to being influenced by these enemies, and that only the complete restoration of Sharia within that world would correct it. He rejected other types of government as possible solutions to this perceived crisis, such as pan-Arabist, socialist, communist, and democratic systems.

He once denounced democracy as a "religion of ignorance" that violates Islam by issuing man-made laws, instead of those made by God; journalist Max Rodenbeck wrote that bin Laden avoided "theological justifications for democracy, [which are] based on the notion that the will of the people must necessarily reflect the will of an all-knowing God." Bin Laden also once favorably compared Spain's democratic system to certain non-democracies in the Muslim world, praising both as allowing for their rulers to be held accountable by the law.

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Attacking the United States

Bin Laden did not unambiguously take responsibility for 9/11 until a 2004 video, but implied his motives for the attacks before then. His views on the U.S. were detailed in two fatwas (non-binding rulings on Sharia matters) that he issued in 1996 and 1998, in both of which he declared war on the U.S.; his 1998 interview with American journalist John Miller; a video released in December 2001; his 2002 Letter to the American People; and his 2004 video, among other statements.

Bin Laden took the indefinite stationing of Christian and Jewish American troops in Saudi Arabia during Operation Southern Watch (1992–2003) as a provocation towards all Muslims, given that he interpreted Muhammad as having banned the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia". This was the principal motivation behind the 1996 fatwa. Bin Laden also wanted to respond to U.S. policies in the Middle East he considered oppressive, especially those that resulted in killings, particularly of women and children; he condemned America's funding and arming of Israel, the establishment of Israel, and the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Palestine. He believed violent jihad was needed to right these actions. In his 2001 video, he said:

"It has become clear that the West in general and America in particular have an unspeakable hatred for Islam. [...] It is the hatred of crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people."

He believed that the U.S. and United Kingdom were being directed by Israel to kill as many Muslims as possible. He alleged that Israel, having already invaded and occupied multiple Muslim-majority countries, was striving towards a "Greater Israel" by annexing the whole Middle East and then enslaving the annexed population. In his 2002 letter, he described the 1948 formation of the State of Israel as "a crime which must be erased".

In his 1998 fatwa, bin Laden claimed the duty of every Muslim was to "liberate" two Islamic holy sites "from their [America's and Israel's] grip": Al-Aqsa in East Jerusalem, and Masjid al-Haram in Mecca; West Jerusalem has been controlled by Israel since 1948, while East Jerusalem was controlled by Jordan from 1948 until 1967, when an ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank began during the Six-Day War.

The fatwa also condemned the concurrent international sanctions against Iraq, which the U.S. participated in. Lasting from 1990 to 2003, the sanctions completely isolated the Iraqi economy and caused near-total GDP collapse, creating a humanitarian crisis. Bin Laden often referenced the resulting child deaths, which according to scholar David Cortright numbered at least ~227,000 by 1999. Later surveys have disputed that estimate, concluding there was "no major rise in child mortality in Iraq [during] the sanctions."

In his 2002 letter, bin Laden implied multiple motives for 9/11, including U.S. support of 1) Israel, against Lebanon during the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon (1982–2000), and against Palestinians during the Second Intifada (2000–2005); 2) Russia, against Muslim militants in the Second Chechen War (1999–2009), and 3) India's oppression of Muslims in Kashmir. He also listed the U.S.-led intervention against Muslim militants in Somalia (1992–1993); pollution caused by the U.S.; and the U.S.' refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, he called upon Americans to convert to Islam.

Before 9/11, bin Laden believed that sending a message to the U.S. through al-Qaeda's attacks could ultimately deter the U.S. military from targeting Muslims in the future. After 9/11, when the U.S. declared its global 'war on terror' and began hunting al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries, bin Laden tried to lure the U.S. military into long wars of attrition in those places by attracting large numbers of jihadists that would never surrender. He predicted this would lead to the economic collapse of the U.S. by "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy". He noted in 2004 that this was essentially how his soldiers had helped force the Soviet Union to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989). Similar to what bin Laden intended, the U.S.' war in Afghanistan lasted for 20 years.

Attacking civilians on 9/11

In his 1996 fatwa, bin Laden mentioned that his war against the U.S. would "not differentiate between [Americans] dressed in military uniforms, and civilians; they are all targets of this fatwa". In his 1998 interview, he said:

"American history does not distinguish between civilians and military, not even women and children. They are the ones who used [a nuclear bomb] against Nagasaki. Can these bombs distinguish between infants and military? America does not have a religion that will prevent it from destroying all people."

Bin Laden believed that all Americans, even civilians, are responsible for the U.S.' actions, as the country is a democracy, and because Americans pay taxes that fund their military. In contrast, he once stated that American democracy was "the law of the rich and wealthy".

After 9/11, bin Laden claimed that the women and children who died in the attacks were not al-Qaeda's intended targets, saying Muhammad condemned the killing of women and children; instead, "the main targets were the symbol of the United States: their economic and military power". In 2004, bin Laden said he was inspired to target the World Trade Center's Twin Towers as revenge for the destruction of towers in Beirut by U.S.-backed Israeli troops in the Siege of Beirut, during the 1982 Lebanon War:

"God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers [at first], but after [witnessing] the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way: to destroy towers in America, so it could taste some of what we are tasting, and to stop killing our children and women."

Judaism

Bin Laden was heavily anti-Semitic. He stated that most of the negative events that occurred in the world were the direct result of Jewish actions, and that Jews and Muslims could never coexist, as war was "inevitable" between them. In his 2002 letter, he stated that Jews controlled American media outlets, politics, and economic institutions. The U.S. and U.K.'s governments were also alleged to be under their control, and he claimed Operation Desert Fox—the two countries' 1998 bombing of Iraq—was proof of this. Bin Laden once described the Jews in this supposed conspiracy as "masters of usury [and] treachery, [who] will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next." He said in his 1998 interview:

"So we tell the Americans as people, [...] that if they value their lives and the lives of their children, to find a nationalistic government that will look after their interests and not the interests of the Jews."

Deaths of Muslim civilians

Hukm al-tatarrus (حكم التترس; 'the law on the use of human shields') is an obscure, albeit religiously legitimate Islamic concept which denies, in certain circumstances, that Muslims engaged in war whose actions unintentionally caused civilian deaths had acted immorally. In 2010, bin Laden wrote a letter criticizing followers of his, such al-Qaeda's ally, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, who had interpreted al-tatarrus to justify routine massacres of Muslim civilians, which had turned away many Muslims previously supportive of Islamist jihadism. He then created a code of conduct constraining his allies' military activities to avoid civilian deaths, and instructed his global followers to focus on persuading hesitant Islamic political parties to follow Islamist jihadism, instead of fighting them. He urged his allies in Yemen to negotiate an end to their conflict with other Muslims, or at least demonstrate peaceful intentions to Yemeni Muslims, and he urged his allies in the Somali group al-Shabaab (an al-Qaeda affiliate after 2012) to pursue economic development and reduce Somalia's extreme poverty caused by constant warfare there.

Militant and political career, 1979–2001

Soviet–Afghan War

In 1979, Muslim-majority Afghanistan was occupied by the mostly non-Muslim Soviet Union; as socialists, the Soviets were backing the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, a socialist national government which had been installed in a military coup in 1978 to the opposition of many Afghan Muslims. Leaving college, bin Laden went to Pakistan with Abdullah Yusuf Azzam to help the Afghan mujahideen resist against the Soviets. Bin Laden later recalled: "I felt outraged that an injustice had been committed against the people of Afghanistan." He likely moved there with the knowledge and support of the Saudi government, which opposed the Soviet occupation.In 1984, bin Laden and Azzam founded Maktab al-Khidamat (MaK), which recruited fighters from across the Arab world into the Afghan mujahideen, while funneling those fighters arms and money; this included paying for their flights or other modes of travel to the country. Bin Laden funded MaK with his inheritance of his family's fortune. During the war, he also helped build cave complexes in the Afghan mountains for mujahideen to use as fortifications. He moved to Afghanistan construction machinery that had been used by the Saudi Binladin Group. Furthermore, he established militant camps in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Bin Laden's collaborators in the war

From 1979 to 1992, the U.S. (via the CIA's Operation Cyclone program), Saudi Arabia, and China provided between $6–12 billion USD worth of financial aid and weapons to tens of thousands of Afghan mujahideen fighters through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Although the U.S. provided money and weapons, the fighters' training was entirely done by the ISI and the Pakistan Armed Forces. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. did not train or fund bin Laden's fighters directly, as according to Mohammad Yousaf, then-head of ISI's Afghanistan operations, Pakistan had a strict policy to prevent any American funding, arming, or training of mujahideen. However, bin Laden himself was trained by former U.S. Special Forces commando and double agent Ali Mohamed in the early 1990s.

In this period, bin Laden became acquainted with Hamid Gul, a Pakistani general and head of the ISI. According to some CIA officers, beginning in early 1980, bin Laden also acted as a liaison between the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency (GIP) and Afghan mujahideen warlords. Journalist Steve Coll states that while bin Laden was likely not a salaried GIP agent, "it seems clear [that they] did have a substantial relationship."

Between 1986 and 1987, bin Laden set up a base in eastern Afghanistan for several dozen of his own soldiers. There, he commanded them to victory against the Soviets at the 1987 Battle of Jaji. Despite the battle's little significance to the mujahideen war effort, it was lionized in the Arab press. It was around this time that bin Laden became idolized by many Arabs.

Soviet withdrawal and the founding of al-Qaeda

Bin Laden split from MaK by 1988. This was largely due to him wanting the Arab fighters in the Afghan mujahideen to form a military force independent from the rest of the mujahideen, whereas Azzam wanted to integrate the groups. The Soviets began withdrawing from Afghanistan in May 1988, and al-Qaeda formed sometime that year. It may have been founded at an 11 August meeting between bin Laden, Azzam, and leaders of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) terrorist group, where the parties are known to have agreed on combining bin Laden's money with the EIJ's experience to move the jihadist cause out of Afghanistan after the withdrawal finished. On 20 August, notes were taken on a meeting involving bin Laden that mention "an organized Islamic faction, [whose] goal is to lift the word of God, to make his religion victorious." To keep its existence a secret, al-Qaeda did not state its name in its early public announcements.

Another topic which bin Laden and Azzam disagreed on was the use of MaK's military force following the withdrawal. They both wanted to use the force MaK had built to defend any oppressed Muslims around the world. Bin Laden then publicly urged the soldiers to wage jihad through terrorism; Azzam issued a fatwa condemning this approach, saying Islamic law condemns the killing of women and children.

The Soviets finished withdrawing in February 1989. The Democratic Republic government, now lacking physical Soviet protection, fought a war from 1988 to 1992 against continuing mujahideen resistance. Concurrently, various anti-Republic mujahideen groups waged internecine combat against each other, which angered bin Laden; in the new war, he stayed working with the GIP and ISI, while they continued to arm those and other Afghan mujahideen groups. In March 1989, bin Laden commanded 800 Arab foreign fighters against the Republic during the Battle of Jalalabad. He moved his men to immobilize the Republic's 7th Sarandoy Regiment, but this caused massive casualties on his side, who lost the battle.

Alleged involvement in the 1988 Gilgit massacre

In May 1988, large numbers of Shia civilians in and around Gilgit, Pakistan were massacred and raped by Sunni militants. This came after a local dispute between Sunni and Shia civilians over the latter's celebrations of the Islamic holiday Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The militants, who were still fasting for Ramadan, had attacked the Shias, already celebrating; the Shias had claimed to have made their first sighting of the crescent moon, which commences Eid al-Fitr, and the Sunnis did not believe them. A contingent of Sunni militants and armed tribesmen from various other places in Pakistan then came to Gilgit, reportedly sent by the Pakistani government to "teach [the Shias] a lesson". Indian intelligence official B. Raman alleged in 2003 that bin Laden had led one of the tribes during the march.

Return to Saudi Arabia

Upon bin Laden's return to Saudi Arabia after the Soviet withdrawal, he was widely praised by Saudis as a hero of jihad, as many viewed his mujahideen force as responsible for defeating the Soviet superpower. He then worked for the Saudi Binladin Group, even after he began engaging in Saudi opposition movements against the House of Saud.In November 1989, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was assassinated in a land mine attack in Pakistan; it is unknown if bin Laden was a perpetrator. With this, bin Laden took full control of MaK, which he absorbed into al-Qaeda. From then on, he was radicalized further by EIJ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. In 1990, bin Laden funded a coup attempt led by extremist communist general Shahnawaz Tanai to overthrow the Republic, which failed. In 1991, as the Soviet Union collapsed, it ended its remaining support to the Republic.

Bin Laden became involved in countries' politics outside of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. He lobbied the Parliament of Pakistan to carry out a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto; the motion was unsuccessful. He also offered the House of Saud to send al-Qaeda to overthrow the Soviet-aligned Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) government in the country of South Yemen, but this was rejected by Prince Turki Al-Faisal. Bin Laden then organized the assassinations of YSP leaders in an attempt to disrupt North and South Yemen's process of unifying into one country; he was forced to stop by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, after North Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a leader in the unification process, complained to the Saudi King Fahd. The unification occurred in 1990, forming the modern Republic of Yemen, first led by Saleh.

Gulf War

The 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait under Iraqi president Saddam Hussein started the Gulf War (1990–1991). Soon, Iraqi forces deployed to the Saudi–Iraqi border. The House of Saud became worried that their control over Saudi Arabia was unstable, as Saddam publicly supported pan-Arabism—the royals were worried he aimed to incite internal dissent against them. Fahd agreed to the U.S. government's offer of military assistance; a week later, bin Laden met with Fahd and Saudi Defense Minister Sultan bin Abdulaziz, telling them not to depend on non-Muslim assistance. Bin Laden offered to help defend Saudi Arabia with a mujahideen force of his. The offer was denied, and the Saudis ultimately accepted 500,000 U.S. troops into their territory.Bin Laden publicly denounced the decision, and tried to convince the Saudi ulama to issue a fatwa condemning it, but senior clerics refused out of fear of government repression. His continued criticism of the royals led them to put him under house arrest, which he remained under until he was exiled from the country in 1991. After the war, the royals allowed U.S. troops to have a continuous presence there, in Operation South

From Wikipedia’s article on Osama bin Laden (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

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