bin laden was increasingly being influenced by egyptian militants in his circle saying let s overthrow all these secular governments in the middle east. and abdullah azzam was opposed to that because he didn t want to be part of anything that pitted muslims against muslims. reporter: armed with a radical new ideology, bin laden was ready to step out from behind azzam, ready to lead his army on to the next war. and that army would take shape here in peshawar, pakistan. in this neighborhood, where osama bin laden lived. meetings were held, plans were made. this is where al qaeda was born. recruits were soon put to the test. in february 1989 the soviets in the last stages of their withdrawal left behind a puppet afghan communist government. for osama bin laden and al qaeda, victory in afghanistan was not yet complete. they joined the battle against the afghan communists in jalalabad, near the pakistan border.
he wouldn t talk unless he needed to. he would listen more. i m dr. khaled batarfi. i met osama bin laden in the early 1970s, when we lived in this neighborhood. reporter: this nondescript middle-class jeddah neighborhood is where batarfi, then age 12, and bin laden, three years older, became neighbors and best friends, going to the mosque together, playing together, watching tv together. among their favorite shows, american westerns and bruce lee movies. we would watch cowboys movies and karate movies, things that, you know, action movies. reporter: batarfi took us to the field where he and bin laden played soccer as teenagers. and just looking at it brings a lot of memories. and i enjoyed being a captain, really, and telling people what to do. reporter: on the soccer field
this riyadh neighborhood. he was the only child his mother had with mohammed bin laden before they divorced. then, bin laden and his mother, aliyah, moved to jeddah and lived here, apart from the other wives and children. mohammed bin laden died when osama was just 10 years old. the school was abuzz with the news that mohammed bin laden had been killed in a plane crash. reporter: with so many siblings, it s hard to say how close osama was to his father or how the loss affected him. this photograph from the early 1970s shows some of the many bin laden brothers and sisters on a vacation in sweden. osama was quiet and shy. his teacher says he rarely spoke up in class. he didn t show any particular signs of being a leader amongst men. he was a shy boy.
here s christiane ammanture. he was a young gentleman, very gentle, very polite. he said if i see you again, i ll kill you. he is the most popular muslim leader in the islamic world today. translator: his voice. when you hear it, it makes you want to stand up right away to join him, to fight. what he s good at is killing civilians. osama bin laden was the world s most wanted terrorist. he haunted americans and millions of others around the world. i m christiane amanpour in peshawar, pakistan, the birthplace of bin laden s terrorist organization, al qaeda. not far from here, just across the border in afghanistan, he disappeared shortly after 9/11. to know more about osama bin laden, to bring you his whole story, we visited his homes, his headquarters, his hideouts. we journeyed in his footsteps, from saudi arabia to pakistan to afghanistan. those who have prayed with him, lived with him, and fought for him share of story of his gradual but deadly transformation.
he was a young gentleman, very gentle, very polite. he said if i see you again, i ll kill you. he is the most popular muslim leader in the islamic world today. translator: his voice. when you hear it, it makes you want to stand up right away to join him, to fight. what he s good at is killing civilians. osama bin laden was the world s most wanted terrorist. he haunted americans and millions of others around the world. i m christiane ammanpour in peshawar, pakistan, the birthplace of bin laden s terrorist organization, al qaeda. not far from here, just across the border in afghanistan, he disappeared shortly after 9/11. to know more about osama bin laden, to bring you his whole story, we visited his homes, his headquarters, his hideouts. we journeyed in his footsteps, from saudi arabia to pakistan to afghanistan. those who have prayed with him, lived with him, and fought for him share of story of his gradual but deadly transformation. from a quiet religious boy to