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(Undated)  —   Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead.  President Obama announced from the White House that bin Laden was killed by a U.S.-led operation in a mansion outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. According to Obama, he was briefed on bin Laden’s possible whereabouts last August.  Obama said he felt the White House had enough intelligence last week to stage an attack.  He said a firefight took place with U.S. forces in which bin Laden was killed.  The al-Qaeda leader’s body was reportedly buried at sea.

The U.S. offered a reward of 25-million dollars for information leading to Osama bin Laden after he was implicated in the 9-11 attacks.  He was suspected of being involved in the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and the 1996 bombing of a U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American soldiers.  He was indicted for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1958, bin Laden was the 17th of 57 children of a Saudi construction magnate.  Bin Laden attended college in Saudi Arabia.  He was 23 when he arrived in Afghanistan to join the jihad against the Soviet Union.  Bin Laden used his family’s fortune to help the mujahideen.  After the Soviets were defeated in 1988, bin Laden decided to form what would become al-Qaeda as a potential general headquarters group for future jihads.