Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of
al Qaeda, the
jihadist organization that claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States, along with numerous other mass-casualty
attacks against civilian and military targets. On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was shot and killed inside a private
residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by members of the United States Naval Special Warfare
Development Group and Central Intelligence Agency operatives in a covert operation ordered by United States President Barack Obama.
