He is wanted in connection with a number of atrocities, including the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in East Africa and - most notoriously - the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. Since then, his al-Qaeda organisation has been linked indirectly with bombings on the island of Bali in Indonesia and its capital Jakarta, as well as with devastating suicide attacks in Casablanca, Riyadh and Istanbul. President Bush said in his State of the Union address in January: "We are tracking al-Qaeda around the world, and nearly two-thirds of their known leaders have now been captured or killed." But more than two years after the 9/11 attacks, the whereabouts of Bin Laden himself remain a mystery. No video tape of him has come to light since late December 2001, but several audio tapes judged by experts to be genuine have been broadcast on the al-Jazeera television network or Islamic websites. The US commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan has said he expects to bring Bin Laden to justice by the end of 2004.

Mild-mannered and polite

But successive operations involving coalition troops inside Afghanistan and Pakistani forces along their side of the border have so far failed to track down the al-Qaeda leader. Those who have met Bin Laden describe him as a mild-mannered man, who is generally polite and hospitable to strangers, yet he has become the most hated and implacable opponent of the US and all it stands for. Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957 to a wealthy Yemeni father and a Syrian mother, he had a comfortable childhood. Like his father, who had made his fortune from the construction business and had close ties with the Saudi royal family, the young Bin Laden had religious leanings. At school and university, he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, he went to Pakistan, where he met Afghan rebel leaders resisting the occupation. Later, he returned to Saudi Arabia to collect money and supplies for the Afghan resistance, the mujahideen. He made further trips, delivering aid and arms, and eventually joining the fight against the Soviets.

Rebel commander

As a wealthy Saudi, he stood out and acquired a following. Egyptians, Lebanese, Turks and others - numbering thousands in Bin Laden's estimate - joined their Afghan Muslim brothers in the struggle against a Soviet ideology that spurned religion. Bin Laden opened a guesthouse in Peshawar - a stopping-off point for Arab mujahideen fighters. Eventually, their numbers became so large he built camps for them inside Afghanistan. He gave the umbrella group for his guesthouse and camps a name: al-Qaeda, Arabic for "the base". As a military commander, Bin Laden was respected for his organisational skills, his bravery and, above all, for his ability to survive.

American backing

The Afghan jihad against the Soviet army was backed by American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. After the Soviet withdrawal, the "Arab Afghans", as Bin Laden's faction came to be called, looked forward to a warm welcome at home. But Bin Laden quickly became disillusioned by the lack of recognition for his achievements. This turned to anger when the Saudis turned down his offer to provide an army of mujahideen to defend the kingdom after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Instead, half a million US soldiers were invited on to Saudi soil - a historic betrayal in Bin Laden's eyes. Bin Laden became an out-and-out opponent of the Saudi regime and began to direct his efforts against the US and its allies in the Middle East. In 1991, he was expelled from the country because of his anti-government activities.