Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda is an islamic terrorist organization that was begun by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi aristocrat, primarily to target Americans. It is notorious for the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and for a 1992 truck bombing of the World Trade Center. Al Qaeda also attacked the American embassy in Kenya and the USS Cole in Yemen.

Al Qaeda's bases in Afghanistan were overrun following 9/11, but Bin Laden escaped to Pakistan. He was killed years later by American special forces. Al Qaeda has been active in insurgencies in Iraq and Syria and continues to execute terrorist attacks around the world.

In recent years it has come into competition with ISIS, which has staked out an even more radical position. Whereas Al Qaeda prefers attack locations to have some political significance, ISIS encourages indiscriminate killing wherever terrorists can get at civilians most easily.