* Founded by Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s
* Wahhabi fundamentalist group based in Afghanistan
* Declared a holy war against the United States and its allies in 1996
* Planned and executed the 9/11 attacks in 2001
Osama bin Laden
* Leader of al-Qaeda
* Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957
* Financed and supported al-Qaeda's activities
* Lived in hiding in Afghanistan for many years
* Killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
* Pakistani-born terrorist
* One of the principal architects of the 9/11 attacks
* Captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2003
* Currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
Ramzi Yousef
* Pakistani-born terrorist
* Mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
* Captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 1995
* Currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison
Ayman al-Zawahiri
* Egyptian-born terrorist
* One of the founders of al-Qaeda
* Succeeded bin Laden as leader of al-Qaeda after his death in 2011
* Killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2022