kids encyclopedia robot

al-Qaeda facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Al-Qaeda
القاعدة‎
Participant in
 
Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions
Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions
Active 11 August 1988 – present
Founder Osama bin Laden  †
Leaders

Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni Jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate.

Al-Qaeda members believe that a Judeo-Christian alliance (led by the United States) is waging a war against Islam and conspiring to destroy Islam. Al-Qaeda also opposes man-made laws, and seek to implement sharīʿah (Islamic law) in Muslim countries.

Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the US and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks. The organization is designated as a terrorist group by NATO, the UN Security Council, the European Union, and various countries around the world.

History

The organization was founded in a series of meetings held in Peshawar during 1988, attended by Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden, Muhammad Atef, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War. From 1992, al-Qaeda established its headquarters in Sudan until it was expelled in 1996. It then shifted its base to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and later expanded to other parts of the world, primarily in the Middle East and South Asia.

In June 2001, al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which had been associated with each other for many years, merged into 'Qaeda al-Jihad'.

Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri is the highest-ranking surviving member of al-Qaeda's leadership after Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011.

Senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed in a drone strike on June 4, 2012. He ranked second to Ayman al-Zawahiri at the time. The strike was carried out in the northwest tribal area of Waziristan. The Pakistan Government has protested to the U.S. about the strike.

Images for kids

  • Al-Qaida crée une brigade dirigée par des Touaregs (8246938011)

    Al-Qaeda militant in Sahel armed with a Type 56 assault rifle, 2012

  • Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri 2001

    Osama bin Laden (left) and Ayman al-Zawahiri (right) photographed in 2001

  • Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden

    Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, 1997

  • Sayyid Qutb

    Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian Islamist who inspired al-Qaeda

  • Afghan Muja crossing from Saohol Sar pass in Durand border region of Pakistan, August 1985

    CIA-funded and ISI-trained Afghan mujahideen fighters crossing the Durand Line border to fight Soviet forces and the Soviet-backed Afghan government in 1985

  • Omar Abdel-Rahman

    Omar Abdel-Rahman

  • Saadallah al-Jabiri square, Aleppo, after the explosion of October 2012

    The scene of the October 2012 Aleppo bombings, for which al-Nusra Front claimed responsibility

  • Kenya bombing 1

    1998 Nairobi embassy bombing

  • FEMA - 4235 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-28-2001 in New York

    Aftermath of the September 11 attacks

  • US 10th Mountain Division soldiers in Afghanistan

    US troops in Afghanistan

  • Khalid Shaikh Mohammed after capture

    Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after his arrest in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in March 2003

  • GSPC map

    Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly GSPC) area of operations

  • The Guardian al-Qaeda recruitment

    Front page of The Guardian Weekly on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The article claimed that al-Qaeda's activity is "increasingly dispersed to 'affiliates' or 'franchises' in Yemen and North Africa."

  • INTEL-COGNITIVE-Cole

    USS Cole after the October 2000 attack

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Al Qaeda para niños