Osama Bin Laden Dead: Timeline Of Major Al Qaeda Attacks (PHOTOS)

"The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory," President Obama said Sunday night in his statement about the death of Osama bin Laden. "Hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky, twin towers collapsing to the ground, black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon. The wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction."

While Al Qaeda and its leader are perhaps most associated with the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the extremist organization has been behind many other terrorist-related events in recent memory, from the deadly London public transit bombings in 2005 to a Marrakesh attack that killed 15 people last month.

View a timeline of Al Qaeda's most major attacks here. Captions are courtesy of Reuters:

• Al Qaeda Attacks Timeline

  Feb. 26, 1993 - A bomb explodes in the garage of the World Trade Center.

• Aug. 7, 1998

  Truck bombs hit the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

• Oct. 12, 2000

  The U.S.S. Cole came under attack in the Yemeni city of Aden.

• Sept. 11, 2001

  Planes fly into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. Another plane crashes in Pennsylvania.

• April 11, 2002

  Explosion in the El Grhiba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia.

• Oct. 12, 2002

  Bombs explode in a nightclub in Bali, killing 202 people.

• Nov. 28, 2002

  Suicide car bombers hit a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.

• May 12, 2003

  Al Qaeda bombers hit Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

• May 16, 2003

  Coordinated explosions hit Casablanca, Morocco.

• Aug. 19, 2003

  The U.N. headquarters in Baghdad are hit by a truck filled with explosives.

• Nov. 9, 2003

  Al Qaeda suicide bombers target a residential compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

• March 11, 2004

  More than 130 people are killed by bombs in four trains in Madrid.

• July 7, 2005

  Bombs explode in the London subway, killing 52 people.

• Nov. 9, 2005

  Attacks on hotels in Amman, the Jordanian capital, are claimed by Al Qaeda in Iraq.

• April 11, 2007

  Suicide bombs explode in the Algerian capital Algiers.

• Dec. 11, 2007

  Al Qaeda claims responsibilities for attacks on U.N. offices in Algiers.

• Dec. 25, 2009

  Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to bomb a U.S.-bound plane.

• Jan. 25, 2010

  Suicide bombers hit hotels in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

• July 2010

  A French tourist is killed by al Qaeda in Morocco after being kidnapped in Niger.

• Oct. 31, 2010

  Gunmen attack a church in Baghdad during Sunday mass.

• Nov. 5, 2010

  Parcel bombs on their way to the United States are intercepted on planes in Britain and Dubai.

• Jan. 2011

  Two Frenchmen were found dead in Niger after being abducted by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

• April 28, 2011

  A bomb explodes in Morocco's tourist hub Marrakesh.

Comments

[mike72]

08:55 PM on 05/04/2011

3 buildings falling directly on their foot prints, including one that was not struck by the airplane.

What is the odds of that happening?

Mind boggling, not by the impossible incident, but by the fact that the general public of US are not already outraged by what is the implication of it.

[Erewhon7]

02:25 PM on 05/05/2011

9--11 Truthers are out in force today, scurrying hither and thither.

[mike72]

09:54 PM on 05/05/2011

But you can not explain why buildings are collapse on their own foot print. That is hard evidence. It is not a speculation.

[mike72]

08:47 PM on 05/04/2011

Seriously, how many people in US actually believe the 911 story presented by the US government?

I can not comprehend the fact that people are so blind to the absurdity of the mounting facts against the official story.

[Ioan Lightoller]

04:11 PM on 06/18/2011

I don't and in the presence of so many questions at some point a new inquiry should be held.

[mindfull1]

12:29 PM on 05/04/2011

More questions than answers, as usual.

http://www.fuckthebullshit.net/

[Erewhon7]

02:34 PM on 05/05/2011

Here's a definitive answer. Your tinfoil beret is too tight.

[Ioan Lightoller]

04:12 PM on 06/18/2011

Sorry but there ARE questions that have remained unanswered. You can't paint every person who has doubts about the events of 9/11 as wearing a tinfoil hat. Your dismissiveness is disgusting.

[sbrannon]

11:35 AM on 05/04/2011

Umm. nice timeline. It is horrible when people do things like that. However, the only thing that I could think about is the difference between all the other bombings OBL is identified with and 9/11. 9/11 required great planning, lots of money, and lots of help. There are no other bombings listed here that required that much intelligence needed. I still do not know what to think. I know when I lived in Israel and there were suicide bombings, many of us knew that some of the bombings were not from the Palestinian, but Russian Mafia. Israel would only say it was Palestinians, to keep the anger going in the local population.

[themasterpuppeteer]

11:14 PM on 05/05/2011

You're not alone, I thought the same thing while looking at the pictures, and I'm not a "conspiracy theorist" either so.

[Jimmy777Jones]

10:29 AM on 05/04/2011

Fox News, and Republican leaders are defending this man. They are saying he should not have been ended. His death is a bad thing. Look at all these pictures and see you agree.

[Mary Yam]

10:47 PM on 05/03/2011

OBL gave us Muslims a bad name. I am glad he is dead.

[Nancy Holmes Simpson]

12:54 AM on 05/04/2011

Bravo Maryam, He was the single worst thing to happen to Muslims since Saladin. E$ven Saladin had more honor....

[Joseph Shagoury]

03:42 PM on 05/04/2011

How, precisely, was Saladin a bad thing for Muslims?

[Erewhon7]

02:36 PM on 05/05/2011

The worst thing to happen to Arabs was Mohammad. They ( and many others) have been suffering the results ever since.

[andrezero]

06:07 PM on 05/03/2011

yada yada, yada yada, yada yada

[cadawa]

03:32 PM on 05/03/2011

A timeline but no evidence of who did it and how.

[Jimmy777Jones]

10:30 AM on 05/04/2011

It is all Al Qeada.

[cadawa]

06:15 PM on 05/04/2011

If you have evidence, please share it. Otherwise all we have the words of proven liars .

[sbrannon]

11:35 AM on 05/04/2011

I agree.

[zelda777]

02:57 PM on 05/03/2011

Might this be a good time to revive a reasonable and fact-based discussion on the 9/11 "conspiracy:? theory?

It seems the whole subject was squelched some time ago without any definitive evidence that it did NOT happen. When you have over 100 strange co-inkydinks on one fateful day, you do have to take a look at that.

With the gargantuan US defense budget, how was it that the airspace over NY and Washington were not guarded? And a bunch of guys with frigging box-cutters and a little flight school nearly brought down the USA? Seriously, how could this happen????

[Jimmy777Jones]

10:31 AM on 05/04/2011

Try Fox and Republican leaders. They are crying the loudest over the end of America's greatest enemy. Mow we can see which side they are really on.

[mathme]

09:02 AM on 05/03/2011

Did anyone do a tally? Just roughing it out in my head-- al Qaeda has managed to kill far fewer people than we have while trying to fight al Qaeda. I was hoping that the death of Osama would give people pause where we could look at the destruction and death that has been wrought on the Middle East (ostensibly) to kill or/capture this ONE person. For the sake of argument, let's take that narrative at face value and say that the US sent troops into Iraq on good faith. How many hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in this endeavor? Yeah, he was a bad guy-- but what the heck are we? And then we celebrate in the streets when he's killed? Go back and find some of that "shocking" footage or those "upsetting" photos of our supposed enemies dragging the bodies of B-52 pilots or other captured airmen through the streets-- what's the difference? 1 strategic bomber can cause far more death than al Qaeda has. When a Predator drone wipes out a wedding with a Hellfire, is that really so different than if it had been done by a suicide bomber? Or does only the intention matter and that since we didn't MEAN to kill all of those people at that wedding, their deaths are somehow cleaner? But we always know that civilians will be killed in large-scale military actions, so in some way, since it was done knowingly, it was intentional.

[JBDenver]

10:47 AM on 05/03/2011

We celebrated the killing of an evil terrorist and architect of thousands of deaths around the globe...they celebrated the deaths of thousands of innocents.

There was not widespread US celebration at the deaths of civilians.

I think there's a difference. I also don't think you'll ever understand.

[mathme]

11:36 PM on 05/03/2011

I don't think you understand what I wrote, in fact, I'm pretty sure that you didn't.

[sbrannon]

12:26 PM on 05/04/2011

Which thousands of innocents? The ones in Afghanistan and Iraq? In Iraq: as of 2009 104,924 recorded iraqi deaths, including 92,003 (or 66,081)civilian deaths. (196, 927) Afghan totals 19,629. That equals: 216,556 human beings killed....so far.

[lemealone]

05:20 PM on 05/03/2011

it isn't how many they have killed, it's how many the would kill if we left them alone.

[mathme]

11:37 PM on 05/03/2011

But since we killed tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians, it's better?

[Uhgg]

10:49 PM on 05/02/2011

And the Thwarted attempt on President Clinton in Morocco in the 90s

[Dustin Weida]

08:37 PM on 05/02/2011

Legos!

[Thomas L Scrivens]

07:17 PM on 05/02/2011

The Long arm of Justice.....Got 'ya --- -- -- !!!

[Ramesh Zamindar]

05:41 PM on 05/02/2011

Abbotabad is about 100 miles from Srinagar and close to the line of control. Knowing Osama - it is likely that he had a strong hand in aiding insurgents in Kashmir. His residence in Abbotabad indicates that very likely he shifted his focus from attacking the west and USA to Kashmir and India. Most likely he participated in Mumbai 2611.

Recently sworn -American citizen terrorist- Faisal Shahzad's family lived close to Osama, and clearly had Osama's blessings when he attempted to do his bombing in Times Square, May 1, 2010 (1 year ago).

Osama didn't live in a cave. He lived in a large, high walled well protected structure. Despite that, the long duration of his survival shows clear complicity with the power structure in Pakistan- military and administration.

[Uhgg]

10:53 PM on 05/02/2011

spam