Center is completed. 1976–1980: Bin Laden is radicalized by Qutb while attending King Abdulaziz University for business administration. 1979: The United States first becomes concerned over Islamism after the Iranian Revolution, the Iran hostage crisis, and the Grand Mosque seizure. 1980: Bin Laden travels to Pakistan to volunteer and assist the Sunni Mujahideen fighting the "holy war" across the border in Afghanistan, a year after the Soviet Union invaded the country. 1981: Bin Laden's future deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Jama At al-Jihad, is arrested for his role in the assassination of Anwar Sadat and imprisoned for three years. 1983: The 1983 Beirut barracks bombings targeting the Multinational Force in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War provides inspiration for Bin Laden. October 1984: Bin Laden cofounds a network, the Maktab al-Khidamat, with Abdullah Yusuf Azzam in Afghanistan and Pakistan to recruit Muslims for the Afghan resistance. 1986: Bin Laden travels to Afghanistan to lead MAK forces in combat. February 1987: Al-Qaeda establishes its first training camps in Afghanistan. May 25, 1987: Bin Laden withstands a Soviet attack during the Battle of Jaji, establishing his reputation in the Arab world. December 8, 1987: The First Intifada begins in Palestine. Bin Laden expresses vocal support for the conflict, and begins to advocate in favor of jihad against the West. 1988: Osama bin Laden forms a computer database of Islamist militants, founding al-Qaeda. He declares that Muslims must protect the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from foreign control as a religious duty. February 15, 1989: The Soviet Army completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and bin Laden advocates transforming al-Qaeda into a global network to fund jihad. Azzam prefers to focus on the Afghan Civil War and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. May–June 1989: Al-Qaeda forces are badly defeated by the Afghan National Army in the Battle of Jalalabad, leading to a drop in membership and reorientation of tactics. June 30, 1989: Omar al-Bashir and Hassan Al-Turabi's National Islamic Front seize control of Sudan in a coup d'état. Al-Turabi would invite bin Laden to stay in the country. November 1989: Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia and Prince Turki bin Faisal rejects his offer to send al-Qaeda to overthrow the Communist government in South Yemen. November 24, 1989: Azzam is assassinated in a car bombing, allowing bin Laden to dominate the organization. May 22, 1990: The governments of South and North Yemen merge into