# Bin Laden

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was the founder and first general emir of the al-Qaeda militant organization. Ideologically a pan-Islamist and Islamic extremist, bin laden organized and/or funded numerous terrorist attacks worldwide—such as the September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11) against the United States, which killed 2,977 victims—as well as many jihadist militant rebellions. He supported rebels of the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet Union in the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989); the Bosnian mujahideen, against Serb and Croat forces in the Bosnian War (1992–1995); the Taliban, against a U.S.-led coalition in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021); and al-Qaeda in Iraq (later, the Islamic State of Iraq), against a U.S.-led coalition in the Iraq War (2003–2011).