Catalogue of terror that led to the end for bin Laden

26 February, 1993: Islamic terrorists set off a bomb in a car park under the World Trade Centre, killing six people and injuring 1,000 others.

7 August 1998: Al-Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden, bombs the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224.

11 September, 2001 - A passenger jet hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists smashes into the north tower of the World Trade Centre, followed by a second crashing into the south tower. A third strikes the Pentagon in Washington DC and a fourth crashes in Pennsylvania.

7 October: The war in Afghanistan begins.

22 December: London-born al-Qaeda sympathiser Richard Reid tries to detonate a shoe bomb in a failed attempt to bring down an airliner flying from Paris to Miami.

11 January, 2002: US begins moving terror suspects arrested in Afghanistan, among them Britons, to a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

12 October: An al-Qaeda-linked terror group sets off two bombs in a bar and nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202, including 28 Britons.

20 March. 2003: Nearly 50,000 UK troops take part in the US-led invasion of Iraq, leading to overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

11 March, 2004: Islamic terrorists set off a series of bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.

7 July 2005: Suicide bombers carry out co-ordinated attacks in London on three Tube trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52 people.

9 August, 2006: Police foil a terror cell planning to blow up passenger jets flying from the UK to North America in mid-air using homemade liquid bombs.

29 June, 2007: Two car bombs are left in central London but fail to go off. The next day the terrorists behind the botched attack drive a Jeep packed with petrol, gas canisters and nails into the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport. One of the extremists dies.

25 December, 2009: London graduate Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab makes failed attempt to blow up a flight to Detroit by setting off explosives hidden in his underwear.

29 October, 2010: A bomb disguised as a printer toner cartridge is found at East Midlands airport on a cargo flight from Yemen to Chicago.

1 May, 2011: Bin Laden is killed by US special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.