1984 – Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam create and fund Maktab al-Khadamat, Services Bureau, to welcome Arab Afghans, or mujahideen, to Pakistan, to help fight the Soviets in soviet occupied Afghanistan.

1986 – Ayman al-Zawahiri returns to Pakistan to work with Red Cresent.  OBL and AA meet with Zawahiri’s Egypt Jihad group, the group responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

1989 – Two groups come together to form Al-Qaeda “the base”.  In November Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, future founder of ISIS, arrives in Afghanistan to attend a training camp.

1990 – August 7th US troops enter Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield (later Storm).  Saudi Arabia is not pleased with Osama bin Laden’s criticisms of the goverment allowing US troops onto the country’s soil, place him under house arrest.

1991 – Bin Laden flees and enters the Sudan.

1992 – September Ramzi Yousef, nephew of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, illegally enters the US from Pakistan, after receiving training from an al-Qaeda training camp in  Afghanistan.  Makes contact in New Jersey and New York with the “Blind Sheikh” Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.  Begins work on 1,500 lb bomb.

December, 28,000 US troops ordered to Somalia for UN humanitarian mission.  Al-Qaeda sees this as another US attempt to take over Muslim world.  Issues “fatwa” to attack US troops in Somalia.  Late December AQ affiliate bombs two hotels in Yemen where US troops are housed on their way to Somalia. No US troops were killed.  Considered to be the first attack on the US by al-Qaeda.

1993 – February Ramzi Yousef and an accomplice drive a Ryder truck with the 1,500 lb bomb into the parking garage underneath the World Trade Center.  Igniting the fuse and fleeing, the blast goes through 4 sub levels of concrete, killing 6 Americans.  The North Tower did not collapse as intended, and Yousef escapes to Pakistan several hours after the bombing.

Bin Laden’s Sudan group provides training to Somali extremists.  October 3rd, Somali extremists use skills to shoot down US helicopter in Mogadishu killing 18 US soldiers. 500 Somalians get killed.  Incident known as “Black Hawk Down”.

Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman arrested for conspiring to conduct bombings in relation to the World Trade Center bombing.

1994 – Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi arrested in Jordan.

1995 – In July al-Qaeda attempts to assassinate Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In November al-Qaeda detonates car bomb in Saudi Arabia outside national guard building killing 5 Americans. Also in November al-Qaddafi attacks the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan killing 15.

1996 – May US and Egyptians pressure Sudan and forces Osama bin Laden to flee Afghanistan to seek refuge with the Taliban.

In June al-Qaeda detonates fuel truck bomb outside Khabarovsk (Kbar) Towers where American troops are housed, killing 19 US soldiers.