Growing Up Bin Laden - Jean P. Sasson [187]
1998: The United States issues a new indictment against Osama bin Laden, Mohammed Atef—listed as bin Laden’s chief military commander—and others. Osama and his commanders are charged with the bombing of the two United States embassies and conspiracy to commit other acts of terror against Americans living abroad. Rewards of $5 million each are offered for Osama bin Laden and for Mohammed Atef.
1999: Omar bin Laden, Osama’s fourth son with his first wife, Najwa, is warned of an attack by Abu al-Haadi, one of Osama’s trusted fighters. Haadi believes the attack is going to be so big that the United States will retaliate with the intention of killing everyone associated with Osama bin Laden. After many heated discussions with his father, Omar takes his pregnant mother, brother Abdul Rahman, and baby sister Rukhaiya out of Afghanistan to Syria.
Late 1999: Osama and Najwa have their eleventh and last child, who is born in Syria. The baby is a girl whom Osama names Nour in honor of Osama’s half-sister, who had died a few years before.
Early 2000: Najwa returns to Kandahar with her two small daughters and son Abdul Rahman. Omar remains in Syria, seeking the restoration of his Saudi citizenship, which is forthcoming in four months.
2000: On October 12, there is a terrorist attack on the U.S. warship Cole at the Aden, Yemen, seaport. The explosion kills seventeen American sailors. President Bill Clinton does not retaliate, saying there is no concrete evidence that al-Qaeda was behind the attack, although that is believed to be the case.
2000 (late) or early 2001: Osama bin Laden marries for the sixth time to Yemeni Amal al-Sadah. It is said that his bride is only seventeen years old. The marriage was held in Kandahar, Afghanistan. At the time of writing it is thought that Osama and Amal have one daughter, named Safia.
2001: In early 2001, a worried Omar returns to Kandahar, Afghanistan, after his grandmother in Saudi Arabia tells him that his father is angry and has ordered him to return to Afghanistan.
2001: Late April 2001, after a brief stay, and a repeated warning of a huge attack in the making, Omar tries to convince his mother to take her children and leave Afghanistan. Najwa remains in Kandahar while Omar leaves his father and Afghanistan for the final time.
2001: Between September 7 and 9, Najwa leaves Afghanistan for the final time. Osama forbids her from taking her other children. A distraught Najwa travels to Syria to live in her mother’s home. Najwa’s other children, their wives, and grandchildren remain in Afghanistan with their father.
2001: On September 11, approximately three thousand people lose their lives when nineteen al-Qaeda suspects hijack four American passenger planes and fly them into American targets. Two fly into the World Trade Center, killing thousands and destroying the buildings. One flies into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. The final plane is stopped from its mission by the brave passengers who fight their hijackers. That plane crashes into a field in Pennsylvania.
2001: On October 7, six weeks after the attacks on American soil, the United States military begins a fierce air assault upon Afghanistan. The bomb attacks are so devastating that they cause a complete disruption of al-Qaeda and the training camps located in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, his commanders, and fighters hide in the mountains of Tora Bora before fleeing to Pakistan. It is believed that many hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters perished, including Mohammed Atef (Abu Hafs), who is killed at his home in Kabul. Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri escape into Pakistan. (Nothing is known of the fate of Najwa’s children, or Osama bin Laden’s other wives and children.) During this same assault, the notorious Mullah Omar and his Taliban government collapse, with Mullah Omar and his followers fleeing to Pakistan.
2004: In October, Osama bin Laden releases a