Late 1980s Bin Laden sets up group in Peshawar to create an "international army" to unite world Islamic community.
November 1995 Egypt's embassy in Islamabad bombed and 17 killed. Orchestrated by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden's deputy.
June 1996 Lorry bomb at a housing complex in Saudi city of Dhahran, below, kills 20, including 19 US servicemen. More than 300 injured. Al-Qaida involvement suspected.
August 1998 Bin Laden's followers bomb US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people.
October 2000 17 sailors killed in attack on US destroyer USS Cole in Aden.
September 2001 Almost 3,000 killed in hijacked aircraft attacks on World Trade Centre, Pentagon, and a fourth target never reached.
October 2002 At least 180 people die in Bali nightclub blasts. Most victims are foreign tourists, mainly Australians.
May 2003 Suicide bombers invade compounds for expatriates in Riyadh, killing 34 people. Later that month at least five bombs in Casablanca kill 45.
November 2003 Four car bombs in Istanbul kill more than 50 people.
March 2004 191 die, 1,463 wounded, in bomb attacks at Madrid stations.
July 2005 Four bomb blasts kill at least 52 people and injure 700 on tubes and buses in London, above.
July 2005 Sharm el Sheikh: bombs kill 88 in Egyptian tourist resort. Perpetrators claim loyalty to al-Qaida.
November 2005 Three suicide bombings at hotels in Amman kill 57 people, most of them Jordanians at wedding parties. Three Americans also killed. Al-Qaida website claims the attacks.
February 2006 Golden dome of al-Askari Shia shrine in Samarra, Iraq, left, destroyed in bombing. Attack blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq triggers wave of sectarian violence.
April 2007 Five men convicted over foiled plots to use fertiliser bombs at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and nightclub. Evidence of al-Qaida link.
December 2007 Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claims responsibility for car bombs in Algiers, which kill 40 people.
