TERROR Mastermind Bin Laden was once the world’s most wanted man.
Yet, he came from one of the word’s wealthiest families with a back catalogue of siblings courtesy of his mother and father. Here we detail who they are.
Who are Bin Laden's parents?
Osama Bin Laden was the only child of the marriage between Hamida al-Attas (Alia Ghanem) and Mohammed bin Laden.
Mohammed bin Laden
Bin Laden’s father was a multi-millionaire Saudi businessman who primarily worked in the construction industry.
Mohammed - originally poor and uneducated - emigrated from Yemen and founded the Saudi Binladin Group where he became the wealthiest non-royal Saudi.
He worked as a building contractor for the Saudi royal family during the 1950s, establishing the bin Laden family as intimately connected with the innermost circles of Saudi royalty.
During his life, he is believed to have married 22 times.
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According to Mohammed, he was planning to wed a 23rd wife the night he died in a plane crash in 1967.
Upon his passing the patriarch had made a staggering $5billion in the construction industry.
Osama reportedly inherited around $25–30million.
He put most of this money into businesses, including banks and cement factories in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
In 2009, Forbes Magazine named the Bin Laden family as the fifth wealthiest in Saudi Arabia.
Hamida al-Attas
Hamida, born 1943, grew up in Syria as part of a family of citrus farmers.
At the tender age of just 14, she married Osama’s father Mohamed in 1956 and moved to Saudi Arabia with her husband.
Records suggest she was either the 10th or 11th wife of the billionaire businessman.
However, not soon after giving birth to Osama in 1957, she divorced from Mohammed and later married Mohammed al-Attas when her son was four or five.
The couple went on to have three sons and a daughter, including Ahmad Mohammed, and a young Bin Laden took an active part in raising his half siblings.
And despite the evil path that he would eventually take, including his lead role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, she remains in “denial” about her mass murdering son.
During a 2018 interview with The Guardian, she called the former Al Qaeda leader a “very good kid" who "loved me so much.”
Who are Osama bin Laden's siblings?
Osama was Mohammed's 17th child and had 53 half and full siblings.
Some of the most notable are:
Salem bin Laden
His eldest brother, Salem bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, was nine years his senior.
The Saudi Arabian investor and businessman was a half brother, related to Osama through his father.
Salem died at the age of 42 in 1988.
Bakr bin Laden
Osama's second-oldest brother Bakr bin Laden, also a successful businesses man, was the former chairman of construction giant Saudi Binladin Group.
He was arrested in Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption campaign and was released 15 months later in January 2019.
Yeslam bin Laden
Yeslam is the half-brother of Osama Bin Laden as has lived in Switzerland since the mid 1980s.
He is multi-lingual and can speak a number of languages including Arabic, English, French and Persian.
According to Frontline, Yeslam has been the chairman of the Swiss-based Saudi investment company which represents his family's international financial interests.
Tarek bin Laden
Tarek is another half-brother of Osama and a member of the Saudi Arabia business community.
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He started a textile business with Swedish actor Kjell Bergvist, before it fell through due to the factories “poor design.”
At the time of writing, Tarek is believed to be the chairman of the Middle East Development LLC, a Dubai-based company.
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