12 October 2000 

Two suicide attackers rammed a boat carrying explosives into the USS Cole near the Yemeni port of Aden. 17 US sailors were killed in this attack. Al Quaeda is said to be responsible for this attck.

Nineteen suspected al-Qaeda members hijacked four planes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania. These were the worst ever attacks on US soil that killed about 3000 people.

Six weeks later, the US launches attacks on Afghanistan, from where Bin Laden has been operating under the protection of the ruling Taleban. After the war, hundreds of suspected al-Qaeda fighters are sent to the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many are still detained.

 A fuel tanker is blown up outside a synagogue on the Tunisian island of  Djerba, killing 19 people including 14 German tourists. An al-Qaeda spokesman later says  the organisation was behind the suicide attack.

At least 23 people were killed and more than 300 injured in two  devastating suicide attacks on synagogues in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The government blamed al-Qaeda for the attacks.

Fifty-two people died and 700 were injured as bombs explode on three underground trains and one bus in central London. Analysts say the attacks bear the hallmarks of groups were linked to or at least inspired by al-Qaeda.

The famous golden dome of the al-Askari shrine is in Samarra an Iraq. One of the holiest sites is in Shia Islam they were all destroyed in a dawn bombing. The attack, blamed on al-Qaeda in Iraq, triggers a wave of escalating sectarian violence throughout Iraq.

Two suicide attacks kill at least 50 people in Algeria within two days. The first suicide attack kills 19 people among a crowd waiting to see the president in Batna. Some 30 others die in the second suicide attack when a truck packed with explosives drives into a naval barracks in the port of Dellys. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is responisble for these 2 attacks.