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Israel invaded Lebanon because the Palestinian
Liberation Organisation was using it as a base for its terrorist
attacks. Eventually two suicide bombers killed 299
French and American soldiers in their bases at Beirut causing the US to withdraw troops. -
Osama bin Laden and extremist Muslims
set up an organisation called Al-Qaeda. It means “The Base” and the organisation’s goal was to provide money and training to support attacks on the enemies of Islam. This group later organized the 9/11 attacks. -
The Muslim troops that defeated the Soviets were called "Mujahideen". This gave them extreme confidence and led to enough confidence to carry out the attacks on 9/11.
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Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and took
its oil wells and ports before American forces regained Kuwaits freedoms. Osama bin Laden was disgusted when American forces were invited to be based in Saudi Arabia during the war. -
an American force tried to capture a tribal leader who had been
responsible for many deaths but the mission went wrong and resulted in the death of 19 US soldiers and many more Somalis. Soon afterwards, the US withdrew its troops from Somalia. This caused Osama bin Laden to think that the USA would end
its support for Israel and remove its bases from Saudi Arabia if Al-Qaeda were to hit US cities with massive terrorist attacks. -
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed met Osama bin Laden at the Al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan. He put forward his plan to attack US cities by flying hijacked planes into well-known buildings. Later, Osama bin Laden declared war with US.
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Osama bin Laden called on all Muslims to serve God by killing Americans so that the USA would withdraw its troops from Saudi Arabia and end its support from Israel. Later, in an interview, he again warned the US of direct attacks.
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama bin Laden finally agreed to plan an attack on sites in the USA, using suicide bombers and planes. This was the start of the 9/11 attacks.
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Al-Qaeda agents started to arrive in the USA to learn how to fly planes and prepare for the 9/11 attacks.
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Mohammed Atta, travelled from the USA to Madrid in Spain to meet his Al-Qaeda contact there. After this meeting, Atta flew back to America and arranged the final practical details such as buying tickets for the flights that were to be hijacked.
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Starting at around 9:00 AM, three planes were hijacked and flown into the world Trade Center and the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into the ground, killing all passengers on board. The Twin Towers eventually collapsed, killing thousands of people trapped inside.
