US & AL QAEDA

US & AL QAEDA

Gulf war led the start of enmity with the Al Qaeda . The Persian Gulf War that took place in between (August 2, 1990 – February 28, 1991), commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from thirty-four nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion State of Kuwait. This war has also been referred to as Operation Desert Storm, the First Gulf war, Gulf War I, or the Iraq War, before the term became identified with the 2003 Iraq War which is also referred to as Desert Storm. Following the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989, Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in august 1990 had put the kingdom and it’s ruling house of Saudi at risk. The world’s most valuable oil fields were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in Kuwait, and Saddam’s call to pan-Arab/Islamism could potentially rally internal dissent. In the face of seemingly massive Iraqi military presence, Saudi Arabia’s own forces were well armed but far outnumbered. Bin Laden offered the services of his mujahideen to King Fahd to protect Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi army. The Saudi monarch refused Bin Laden’s offer, opting instead allow US and allied forces to deploy troops into Saudi territory. The deployment angered Bin Laden, as he believed the presence of foreign troops in the ‘land of the two mosques’ (Mecca & Medina) profaned sacred soil. After speaking publicly against the Saudi government for harbouring American troops he was banished and forced to live in exile in Sudan.

Rise of Al Qaeda

9/11 In Humanitarian Attack on US

        After his expulsion from Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden established his headquarters for Al Qaeda in Khartoum, Sudan. The first actions of Al Qaeda against American interests were attack on US servicemen in Somalia. A string of terrorists actions suspected to have been orchestrated by Al Qaeda followed, and in August 1996 Bin Laden issued a ‘declaration of War’ against the US. Al Qaeda worked to forge alliances with other radical groups. In February 1998, Bin Laden announced an alliance of terrorist organisation- “International Islamic front for Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders ” that included the Egyptian Al Gama’at Al Islamiyya, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Harkat-ul-Ansar and the other various groups. In 1994 Sudan under pressure from Saudi Arabia and the US expelled Bin Laden, who moved his base of operation to Afghanistan. Bin Laden was the ‘guest’ of the Taliban until the US drove them from power in November 2001. Al Qaeda set up terrorist training camps in the war torn nation, as it had in Sudan. From the organisation carried terrorist operations in the different parts of the world including the most horrifying twin towers 9/11 attack.