Al Qaeda
al-Qaeda is an international Islamist terrorist organization founded in the late 1980s to fight the Red Army of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, during the 1980-89 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. During the war, Osama bin Laden was provided with weapons and training from the CIA. It is currently led by Osama Bin Laden and is predominantly composed of fanatical Sunni Muslims. Al Qaeda is responsible for the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and numerous smaller attacks. The group's wing in Iraq is believed to be responsible for many of the attacks and bombings there. The group has no known connection to the government of Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. "Al Qaeda" is roughly equivalent to "the base" ( القاعدة) in Arabic.