Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden ""; 10 March 1957 2 May 2011) was the founder of al-Qaeda, the Sunni militant Islamist organization. It claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks on the United States. It is also responsible of many other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. He was a Saudi Arabian, a member of the wealthy bin Laden family, and an ethnic Yemeni Kindite.