Meet the Authors

1996
The Taliban takes control of Afghanistan and conquers Jalabad and Kabul; Kabul University is shut down. Taliban law limits male students to a high school education and bans female students over the age of 12 from all schooling. The Jamiat-ul- Ulema-e-Islam political party in Pakistan assists in the organization of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is expelled from Sudan and establishes a training facility near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to develop al Qaeda into an international terrorist network.

6/25/1996
A truck bomb is detonated outside the U.S. Air Force complex Khobar Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia; 19 U.S. servicemen are killed and 515 people are injured, including 240 U.S. citizens. The attack is blamed on the Movement for Islamic Change organization, with key suspects Ahmed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, Ibrahim al-Yacoub, and Abdel Karim al-Nasser.

7/17/1996
TWA flight 800 en route from JFK airport to Paris crashes near Long Island; all 230 aboard are killed. The location of the explosion-over the plane's fuel tank-is identical to the point of detonation aboard PAL flight 434, a bombing that was carried out by Yousef. The explosion is immediately believed to be a terrorist attack, but eventually an electrical short is blamed and the investigation is shut down.

8/1/1996
A bomb planted by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group explodes at the home of the French Archbishop of Oran in Algeria, killing the Archbishop and his chauffeur.

9/2/1996
Osama bin Laden releases a written declaration of attack against the United States, including a demand to withdraw U.S. troops and to overthrow the Saudi Arabian government.

9/27/1996
The Taliban conquers the capital city of Kabul, Afghanistan, and hangs Mohammed Najibullah on a public street.

1/2-13/1997
Letter bombs with Alexandria, Egypt, postmarks are discovered at Al-Hayat newspaper bureaus and at a prison facility in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Leavenworth, Kansas, USA; London, England; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

2/23/1997
A Palestinian gunman opens fire on an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, killing a Danish national and tourists from the United States, Argentina, Switzerland, and France. The gunman's suicide note claimed his attack was a punishment against "the enemies of Palestine."

5/23/1997
A Taliban militia executes 11 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, after conquering the city.

5/24/1997
Pakistan formally recognizes the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

11/12/1997
4 U.S. auditors and a Pakistani driver are killed in Karachi, Pakistan, by the Islamic Inquilabi (Revolutionary) Council and the Aimal Khufia Action Committee. The attack may have been carried out in retaliation for the U.S. conviction of Pakistanis who murdered 2 CIA agents.

11/17/1997
Six militants claiming to be members of Jamaat al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) and a combination of "Talaa Al Fath" and its parent group Jihad massacre 58 foreign tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt.

1998
The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (with prayer houses in Ashland, Oregon, and Springfield, Missouri), raises over $30 million a year; part of these funds are directed to Osama bin Laden. The Global Relief Foundation in Chicago, Ill., knowingly or unknowingly raises more than $5 million per year to be given to bin Laden.

1998
Osama bin Laden releases a declaration stating that, "To kill 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." Bin Laden also stated in an interview, "Our battle against the Americans is far greater than our battle was against the Russians. We anticipate a black future for America. Instead of remaining United States, it shall end up separated states and shall have to carry the bodies of its sons back to America."

1998
The United Nations is forced out of Iraq; an announcement is made that Saddam Hussein produced thousands of liters of weaponized anthrax and botulinum toxin, more than enough to kill every human on earth.

6/2/1998
The U.S. embassy in Lebanon, Beirut, is attacked by rocket-propelled grenades.

7/7/1998
The U.N. General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to give Palestinians a larger role in the U.N. The Palestinians hail the vote as a first step toward full U.N. membership.

8/1998
The Taliban government of Afghanistan murders 4,000 to 6,000 people of the Hazara ethnic group and of the Shiite denomination of Islam.

8/7/1998
Truck bombs are detonated almost simultaneously outside two U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring more than 5,000. The attacks are carried out by 22 al Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden.

8/20/1988
The United States retaliates for the attack against U.S. Embassies by bombing key targets in Afghanistan and Sudan with cruise missiles. Osama bin Laden is targeted in the attack, but escapes from a training camp in Khost, Afghanistan, before it is hit.

11/1998
The U.S. Justice Department indicts Osama bin Laden for the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

11/15/1998
The 11-year-old son of a U.S. businessman is kidnapped, held for $1 million ransom, and later released.

12/28/1998
The Aden Abyan Islamic Army takes 17 western tourists hostage in Yemen.

1/12/1999
The wife and son of Afghan political moderate Abdul Haq are killed in their home in Peshawar, Pakistan.

1/16/1999
The U.S. Justice Department indicts Osama bin Laden and 11 other al Qaeda members. Osama bin Laden is added to the FBI's Most Wanted list.

3/27/1999
Mohammed Jehanzeb, secretary of the anti-Taliban organizer Haji Qadir, is assassinated in Peshawar, Pakistan.

4/23/1999
The United Nations Human Rights Commission condemns the Taliban government for Afghanistan's human rights abuses. Afghanistan is designated a "terrorist-sponsored state."

8/15/1999
The United Nations Security Council resolves that the Taliban must turn over Osama bin Laden.

12/14/1999
Ahmed Ressam's plot to blow up LAX airport is thwarted when U.S. Customs agents find explosives in the trunk of the vehicle he was attempting to drive across the Canadian-U.S. border at Port Angeles, Wa.

12/1999
A plot to kill U.S. and Israeli millennium celebrators by bombing a fully booked hotel and prominent Christian sites in Amman, Jordan, is thwarted by a tip to intelligence officials. 2000-2004 More than 1,000 people are killed through Palestinian terrorism and violence; the majority are killed by suicide bombings.

1/3/2000
A plot to bomb a hotel in Amman, Jordan, an attack on Mount Nebo, and an attack at a site on the Jordan River are all thwarted. A plan to bomb Los Angeles International Airport is thwarted. A plan to bomb The USS Sullivans with a boat laden with explosives is thwarted. All plots were formed by al Qaeda.

2/2000
Al Qaeda defector Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl testifies that Osama bin Laden had tried to buy uranium on the black market for $1.5 million in a presumed attempt to develop nuclear weapons. Summer 2000 Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes rise past 3,000. Israel has been demolishing the homes of suicide bombers and their families in efforts to deter and punish attackers.

7/2/2000
The Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and other national monuments in Washington, D.C., are identified as possible terrorist targets. August 12, 2000 4 U.S. citizens are taken hostage in Kara-Su Valley by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; the hostages later escape.

11/28/2000
The New Intifiada, a Palestinian rebellion against Israeli occupation, begins.

10/12/2000
A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, is rammed by a small boat loaded with explosives in Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39. Osama bin Laden is believed responsible for the attack.

12/30/2000
A plaza across the street from the U.S. embassy in Manila, Philippines, is bombed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front; 9 are injured. 2001 An estimated $30 million per year is spent to sustain al Qaeda.

5/26/2001
United Nations Security Council states that the Taliban is selling opium and heroin to finance terrorist training.

6/1/2001
A disco in Tel Aviv, Israel, is bombed; 21 are killed and 120 injured, mostly teenagers. Hamas organization leader Ayman Halaweh is blamed for the attack.

8/3/2001
The Taliban arrests 24 humanitarian aid workers in Kabul, Afghanistan, including several people who were attempting to propagate Christianity, an act punishable by long prison terms or execution.

8/9/2001
A suicide bomber blows up a pizzeria in Jerusalem, Israel; 15 are killed, and 130 injured.

11/9/2001
General Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance anti-Taliban opposition, is assassinated in a suicide bomb attack in Khvajeh Be Odin, Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is believed responsible.

11/9/2001
A suicide bomb is detonated by an Israeli Arab working for Hamas in Nahariya, Israel; 3 are killed.

11/11/2001
9/11: American Airlines flight 11 en route from Boston to Los Angeles is hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center (north tower); United Airlines flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles is hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center (south tower); United Airlines flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco is hijacked and crashes in southwestern Pennsylvania; American Airlines flight 77 en route from Washington to Los Angeles is hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. More than 6,000 are killed, and thousands more are injured. Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda mastermind Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, and 19 hijackers plan and carry out the attacks.

11/11/2001
The fiscal damage to the United States resulting from the 9/11 attacks exceeds $16.5 billion; 200,000 jobs lost. The travel industry makes $13 billion less annually. It is estimated that only $400,000 to $500,000 was spent to plan and carry out the 9/11 attacks.

11/13/2001
An al Qaeda plot to attack U.S. embassies and the Eagle Base airfield in Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, is thwarted by NATO officials. In a separate incident, Israeli authorities prevent a radioactive backpack-bomb from entering Israel; the smugglers have ties to al Qaeda.

11/18/2001
Letters containing anthrax are mailed from Trenton, N.J., to five U.S. media outlets, along with notes, one of which read "09-11-01, this is next, take penacilin [sic] now, death to America, death to Israel, Allah is great." One recipient dies.

10/7/2001 - 3/2002
Operation Enduring Freedom: After repeated warnings to surrender terrorists, U.S. and British forces begin bombing Taliban and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.

10/8/2001
Plots to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris, France, and possibly NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, are uncovered.

10/8/2001
The Department of Homeland Security is formed in response to the acts of terrorism perpetrated against the United States, and in order to coordinate the work of America's security and intelligence agencies. It is the largest governmental reorganization since 1947.

10/9/2001
A second batch of letters containing a new, weaponized form of anthrax (previously unseen by bioweapons experts) are mailed to two Democratic senators in Washington, D.C., along with notes that read "09-11-01. You can not stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great." 22 people develop infections, and 4 die. Both these letters and the September 18th set of letters contain the same strain of anthrax. Some suspect that the attacks are linked to the 9/11 hijackers, but the FBI claims the anthrax attack are a result of domestic terrorism.

10/11/2001
Two nuclear suitcases reportedly reach al Qaeda operatives in the United States.

10/17/2001
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine assassinates the Israeli Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Zeevi, to avenge the death of Mustafa Zubari.

10/28/2001
A Christian church in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, is shot up; 15 are killed.

11/17/2001
Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani resumes his presidency in Kabul, Afghanistan, after being removed from power by the Taliban in 1996.

11/2001
According to Osama bin Laden, nuclear weapons are available for $10 million and $20 million inRussia.

11/25/2001
Mullah Mohammed Omar reports that the nuclear destruction of the United States is underway.

12/1/2001
Two Hamas suicide bombers attack a mall in Jerusalem, Israel; 11 are killed, and 188 injured.

12/2/2001
A Hamas suicide bomber blows up a bus in Haifa, Israel, to avenge the death of a Hamas member; 15 are killed, and approximately 40 wounded. 2002 Saddam Hussein and his regime support terrorism by offering $25,000 to the families of all suicide bombers.

2002
Operation Defensive Shield is enacted by Israel to respond to massive Palestinian attacks.

1/23/2002
Armed militants kidnap Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan. Pearl is later beheaded, and a video of his murder is shown around the world. Hundreds more will be be kidnapped and beheaded by Muslim militants in the years to come.

2/14/2002
Abdul Rahman, Afghanistan's minister of civilian aviation and tourism, is beaten to death at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan by al Qaeda operatives. The attack was ordered by Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

2/18/2002
According to Associated Press figures, 941 Palestinians and 273 Israelis had now died in the current intifada (Palestinian uprising).

3/12/2002
The U.N. Security Council passes a U.S. resolution calling for a Palestinian state to exist side-by-side with Israel. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urges Palestinians to halt "morally repugnant" acts of terror against Israelis, and he calls upon Israel to end its "illegal occupation" of Palestinian land.

3/17/2002
A Protestant International Church in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked with grenades; 5 are killed, and 40 injured. Islamic militants are suspected to have carried out the attack.

3/29/2002
The U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 1402 calling upon Israel to withdraw its forces from all Palestinian cities, but also expressing "grave concern" over the practice of Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis.

4/11/2002
A truck loaded with propane gas is blown up near the El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia; 16 killed, 26 injured. Attack carried out by al Qaeda operatives and the Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Sites.

11/5/2002
Bombings in Kabul and Kandahar, Afghanistan, kill 32 and injure 150. Later that day, Afghan president Hamid Karzai survives an unsuccessful assassination attempt. The attacks are blamed on Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Hezb-e-Islami.

11/11/2002
Kashmir's Law Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone and 6 security guards are murdered in Tikipora, Kashmir, by Lashdar-e-Tayyiga, Jamiat ul- Mujahedin, and Hizb ul-Mujahedin.

10/2-24/2002
The "Beltway Sniper" attacks over a period of 3 weeks, killing 10 and injuring 3 in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore-Washington Metro area. John Allen Muhammed (a member of the Nation of Islam) and Lee Boyd Malvo are convicted of the attacks.

10/6/2002
A barge loaded with explosives rams into a French oil tanker in Al Mukalla, Yemen, killing 1 crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Aden.

10/8/2002
A U.S. Marine is murdered and another wounded at a training center in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government calls the incident a terrorist attack.

10/12/2002
Al Qaeda plants bombs that explode outside two nightclubs in Kuna Beach, Bali; 202 are killed, 300 injured.

10/18/2002
An al Qaeda bombing in Manila, Philippines, kills 2 and injures 20.

10/2 - 10/22/2002
Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad (both converts to Islam) shoot 13 people, killing 10 of them, in random sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area. While there motive is unknown, a friend reports that John Muhammad had stated that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks "should have happened a long time ago."

10/28/2002
Laurence Foley, Executive Officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development Mission in Jordan, is assassinated in Amman, Jordan, by the Honest People of Jordan terrorist group.

11/24/2002
Reghunath and Shiv temples in Jammu, Kashmir, are attacked by armed Lashkare-e Tayyiba militants; 13 are killed, and 50 injured.

11/28/2002
Three suicide bombers attack a hotel frequented by Israeli tourists in Mombasa, Kenya; 15 killed, 40 injured. In a separate incident, two SA-7 shoulder- fired missiles are fired at an Arkia Airlines Boeing 757 near Mombasa's airport. The attacks are carried out by al Qaeda, the Government of Universal Palestine in Exile, and the Army of Palestine.

2003
The cost of the United States war on terrorexceeds $4.5 billion per month.

2/8/2003
Kurdish legislator Shawkat Haji Mushir is murdered and two other Kurdish officials are kidnapped in Qamash Tapa, Iraq, by Ansar al-Islam.

2/22/2003
Al Qaeda operatives open fire at a World Cup cricket match in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 9.

3/2003
The American College of Forensic Examiners (the world's largest forensic membership association) and The American Board for Certification in Homeland Security in Springfield, Missouri, spearhead the private sector efforts to prepare for, prevent, and respond to terrorist attacks by forming the groundbreaking Certified in Homeland Security, CHSSM, program. Thousands of professionals sign up in the first year.

3/2/2003
Osama bin Laden's plan to create a "nuclear hellstorm" by constructing and detonating dirty nukes on United States soil is uncovered when Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's military operations chief, is arrested in Karachi, Pakistan. Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and "Dr. X" are behind the plot.

3/20/2003
The Iraq War begins.

4/3/2003
Davao Airport in Davao City, Philippines, is attacked by the Islamic Liberation Front.

8/7/2003
A car bomb is detonated outside the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq; 19 are killed, 65 injured.

8/14/2003 A massive power outage causes total blackouts at 21 power plants throughout the Eastern United States and part of Canada within 3 minutes. A communique attributed to al Qaeda claims responsibility, but lightning is blamed as the official cause.

8/18/2003
The massive power outage is estimated to cost Canada and the United States more than $10 billion (U.S. dollars). A communique attributed to al Qaeda claiming responsibility states, "It is a message to all the investors that the United States is no longer a safe country for their money, knowing that the U.S. economy greatly relies on the trust of the investor."

8/19/2003
A truck loaded with surplus Iraqi ordnance explodes outside the United Nations Headquarters; 23 killed, more than 100 injured. Al Qaeda branch Brigades of the Martyr Abu Hafz al-Masri is believed responsible.

12/14/2003 and 12/25/2003
Pakistani President Musharraf survives two assassination attempts in Islamabad, Pakistan.

12/19/2003
The Baghdad office of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution is bombed; 1 killed, 7 injured.

12/24/2003
A suicide car bomb is detonated outside the Kurdish Interior Ministry in Irbil, Iraq; 5 killed, 101 injured.

12/25/2003
Two suicide truck bombings in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, kill 14. Members of Jaish-e-Muhammad are suspected to have carried out the attacks.

2003-2004
More than 177 contract workers from over 25 nations are killed or missing in Iraq; many taken hostage and beheaded by terrorists.

2004
In Darfur, Sudan, Sudanese government forces and Janjaweed Arab militias launch a self-declared jihad on the mostly Christian and animist south through massacres; civilian executions; rapes; town, village, mosque, and church burnings, and forcible depopulations of lands by Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Over 70,000 people are killed and more than 1.6 million displaced in the conflict.

2004
Osama bin Laden pays an estimated $60 to $100 million to obtain the expertise of Pakistan's nuclear engineers and other specialists. Former Soviet and Chinese nuclear scientists and technicians are also employed by bin Laden. One purchase of 12 kilos of uranium reportedly cost bin Laden more than $75 million.

2004
Some 200 international terrorist acts were carried out in 2004 by groups and organizations linked to Al-Qaeda, killing about 1,500 and wounding about 4,000. Almost half of the attacks involved explosives; about 1/4 used firearms. Nearly 20% involved suicide missions. About 12% of the acts were directed solely against U.S. targets, around 1/3 of the attacks involved non-Western targets. The main victims of international terrorism were the people of Central Asia and the Persian Gulf region--overwhelmingly Muslim societies.

2/25/2004
Explosions occur at Camp Crame Philippine National Police Force headquarters in Quezon City, Phillipines; the explosions are officially reported to have been caused by an electrical short.

2/28/2004
Pakistani police guarding the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, fall under gunfire; 3 are killed, 6 injured.

3/1/2004
A bomb planted by Abu Sayyaf explodes on a ferry in Manila Bay, Philippines; 27 killed, dozens injured, and 100 still missing. The incident is originally called an accident, but Sayyaf's involvement is later uncovered.

3/11/2004
Bombs explode on 3 commuter trains in Madrid, Spain; 201 are killed, 1,400 injured. Al Qaeda believed responsible, with Rabei Osman Ahmed as the key suspect. Soon after the attack, Spanish voters elect a new government that pledges to withdraw troops from Iraq.

8/1/2004
The United States comes under threat of attack by suicide bombings on financial buildings in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. (The New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup, Prudential, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are targets.)

11/7/2004
The 1,000th U.S. troop is killed in Iraq

11/11/2004
Palestinian leader and founder and president of the PLO Yasir Arafat dies at age 75 in a military hospital in Paris, France. He was responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks.

12/7/2004
Armed gunmen linked to al Qaeda attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Five employees and four attackers are killed.

2/14/2005
The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf sets off three bombs in Manila, Davao, and General Santos city in the Philippines, killing at least 9 people and wounding more than 100 others.

2/14/2005
The previously unknown terror group Victory and Jihad claims responsibility for a massive bomb in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 16 other people and wounded 137.

2/28/2005
Saajid Mohammed Badat of Gloucester, west England, becomes the first British citizen convicted of a terrorist offense since the 9/11 attacks in the United States. He plead guilty to conspiring with convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to blow up an aircraft in 2001

2/25/2005
A suicide bombing outside a nightclub in Tel Aviv, Israel, kills 5 and injures up to 65 people. Islamic Jihad and Syria are suspected in the attack.

4/7/2005
A suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in a Cairo, Egypt, market popular with tourists, killing 4 (an American man, a French woman and man, and an Egyptian man believed to the bomber) and wounding 17. The Islamic Brigades of Pride in Egypt claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was retaliation against the United States and other "colonial powers" oppressing its Iraqi and Palestinian Islamic brothers.

4/13/2005
In London, England, Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian, was found guilty of plotting to spread ricin, murdering a policeman, attempting to murder 2 other officers, and wounding another officer in January, 2003. Police believe Bourgass was h&picked for training in poison-making in one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan, and that he was part of a network of hundreds of mainly Algerian terrorists stretched across Europe and North America.

4/22/2005
Saajid Mohammed Badat, 25, of Gloucester, west England, is sentenced to 13 years in jail for conspiring with convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 on December 22, 2001.

6/27/2005
A military court in Astina Military Base, Israel, convicts former Israeli soldier Wahid Taysir of manslaughter in the April 2003 shooting death of Tom Hurndall, a young pro-Palestinian British activist who was helping Palestinian children avoid Israeli tanks in the Rafah refugee camp.

7/1/2005
Police in Ankara, Turkey, kill suspected suicide bomber Eyup Beyaz as he runs toward a crowded street. Beyaz was identified as a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C.

7/7/2005
In London, England, bombs explode on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people, plus the four bombers, and injuring more than 700. Scotland Yard officials immediately suspect al Qaeda in the attacks, and they later identify 4 suspects in the bombing: British citizen Shahzad Tanweer, age 22, British citizen Mohammed Sidique Khan, age 30, and Germaine Lindsay, age 19, and Hasib Hussain, age 18.

7/12/2005
A soon-to-be-operational electrical power plant in Amorebieta, Spain, is rocked by four explosions. The Basque separatist group ETA claims responsibility for the bombing.

7/12/2005
A Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up at a mall in the coastal city of Netanya, Israel, killing three Israelis. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the blast. In response to the bombing, an Israeli force moves in to Tulkarem in an attempt to arrest Islamic Jihad militants believed responsible. At least one Palestinian is killed and two Israelis wounded after armed Palestinians open fire and the Israelis fire back.

7/12/2005
A car bomb detonates in a Christian neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon, killing at least two and wounding 12, including Lebanon's outgoing deputy prime minister and acting defense minister Elias Murr. Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists are suspected in the bombing.

7/13/2005
Pakistan's interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao announces that a planned terror attack in Britain, set to take place before the country's May general elections, was thwarted and arrests were made in several countries as a result of help from Pakistan's government.

7/14/2005
Palestinian militants fire a rocket into Israel, killing an Israeli woman.

7/15/2005
Palestinian militants launch at least six rockets into Israel from northern Gaza, inciting violence between the militants and Palestinian security forces, brining a state of emergency to the territories.

7/21/2005
In London, England, four minor coordinated explosions occur at three underground stations and one London bus. One person is injured. The group, Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, claiming links to al Qaeda, claims responsibility for the attack.

8/2/2005
In Tehran, Iran, an explosive device detonates in a building housing offices for British Airways and oil company BP, breaking windows and causing damage. No deaths or injuries were reported.

8/17/2005
More than 100 bombs detonate in in more than 36 districts, mainly in and around government facilities, press clubs, and the courts across Bangladesh, inuring at least 125 people and killing at least 2. Jamayetul Mujahedin, an Islamic militant group that wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh, distributed leaflets at the bomb sites but did not officially claim responsibility for the attacks.

8/19/2005
Three rockets narrowly miss 2 U.S. military ships in Aqaba, Jordan. They strike a warehouse and hospital, killing 1 Jordanian solider and severely wounding another. An al Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for the attacks.

10/1/2005
Three suicide bombers attack crowded tourist restaurants in Bali, killing 22 and wounding more than 100. Officials blamed unnamed terrorists, are suspected to have been schooled by the Philippines-based terror group Abu Sayyaf, for the attack.

10/6/2005
Suspected Islamic insurgents shoot and kill 5 soldiers and wound 2 others as they eat dinner at a military outpost in southern Thailand. The beheaded body of a villager who is suspected to be have been killed by insurgents is also discovered in a southern province. The beheading is the 11th reported in Thailand since Islamic separatists revived a violent insurgency in January 2004. The violence has claimed more than 1,000 lives.

10/15/2005
The new constitution of Iraq is approved. 10/25/2005 The 2,000th U.S. troop is killed in Iraq

10/26/2005
Hadera, Israel - A suicide bombing in a crowded marketplace kills 5 and wounds 28 others. Palestinian sources identify the bomber as Hassan Abu Zeid; Islamic Jihad claim responsibility for the attack

10/27/2005
Tehran, Iran - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly states that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world." He then also states, "and God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism." Several world capitals immediately condemn Iran's leader and call for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations.

12/5/2005
Netanya, Israel - A suicide bomber kills 5 people and injures 35 others -- in an attack outside a shopping mall. The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

12/15/2005
Democratic parliamentary elections are held in Iraq.

1/19/2006
Tel Aviv, Israel - Twelve people are wounded when a suicide bomber detonates his backpack bomb outside a sandwich shop.

1/26/2006
Hamas wins a majority in the Palestinian elections, giving the group control over the Palestinian government. Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

3/3/2006
University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-azar drives his SUV into a crowd on the U.N.C. Chapel Hill campus, injuring 9. He stated that the act was to avenge the treatment of Muslims.

3/16/2006
Since February 22, 2006, waves of violence between Sunni and Shiite factions in Iraq kill 100s of Iraqis.

3/16/2006
The new Iraqi parliament convenes for the first time.

3/21/2006
32 Islamic extremists are indicted in Madrid, Spain, for a failed plot to bomb the National Court in Madrid with the goal of destroying evidence in other terror investigations and killing the more than 1000 people who worked in the building. The suspects are also charged with belonging to a terrorist group.

6/7/2006
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed by a U.S. airstrike on a safe house north of Baghdad. al Zarqawi was the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq and behind numerous kidnappings and beheadings there.

7/13/2006
Israel bombs Hezebollah in Lebanon in response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. Air strikes from Israel destroy air strips and roads in Lebanon. Israel blockades ports. Thousands of people leave Lebanon in fear of the bombings.

8/10/2006
British police arrest 21 suspects in an apparent al- Qaeda plot to detonate liquid explosives on planes flying from the UK to the US. The plot was to blow up 10 airliners heading to the US. Throughout History to Date Mount Moriah in Jerusalem remains a holy site for the world's three major religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Control over this area continues to be a point of contention, largely because the site is mentioned in these religions' prophesies on the biblical end of times and the coming of the messianic age.