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| The young bin laden goes to Afghanistan to help afghan resistance fighters, known as the mujahedeen, repel the soviet invasion of the country. Abdullah Azzam founds an organization to provide assistance to the mujahedeen. Bin laden becomes the chief financer of the organization, which evolves into a group known as al Qaeda. The Arabs assisting the mujahedeen become known as Arab Afghans. |
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| Bin Laden is expelled from Saudi Arabia due to his anti-government activities. He takes refuge in Sudan. Eventually, Saudi Arabia revokes his citizenship, and his family disowns him as well |
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| In February, a bomb at the World Trade Center kills six and wounds hundreds. Six Muslim radicals, who U.S. officials suspect have links to bin Laden, are eventually convicted for the bombing. In October, 18 U.S. servicemen who are part of a humanitarian mission to Somalia are killed in an ambush in Mogadishu. Bin Laden later says that some of the Arab Afghans were involved in the killings and calls Americans "paper tigers" because they withdrew from Somalia shortly after the soldiers' deaths. |
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| Under pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese expel bin Laden from the country. Bin Laden moves with his 10 children and three wives (he is rumored to have since added a fourth) to Afghanistan. Bin Laden declares a jihad, or holy war, against U.S. forces. Nineteen U.S. soldiers die in a bombing of the Khobar military complex in Saudi Arabia. The United States indicts bin Laden on charges of training the people involved in the 1993 attack that killed 18 U.S. servicemen in Somalia. |
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| In February, bin Laden appears in public at his son's wedding in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the Taliban's spiritual leader lives. Four of bin Laden's alleged supporters are convicted May 29 of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the U.S. government names bin Laden as a prime suspect. |
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