On this day: Bin Laden declares jihad

Long before the September 11 attacks on the United States, Osama bin Laden had made himself known as a terror threat. In 1996 he declared that Muslims should raise jihad against the west, and two years later he outlined his belief that killing “Jews and crusaders” was an "individual duty for every Muslim".

The fatwa stated: “All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries.

“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.”

Published in London in the Arabic Newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, this declaration of jihad – signed alongside his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri under the auspices of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders – was no empty threat, as the world would learn that August.