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On the 2nd May 2011 the most wanted terrorist was killed. The body of Osama Bin Laden underwent DNA testing to confirm whether the body was really that of the terrorist. When DNA testing confirmed this, huge celebration took place at New York’s Ground Zero, where many American felt the horrible atrocities committed on September 11th, organized by the mind of Bin Laden himself, had been avenged.

 Bin Laden: Biography

In an interview, Bin Laden (sometimes also called Usuma Bin laden) claimed to have been born in 1957 on the 10th of May. He came from a rich Saudi Family. His father was well connected and even had ties with the Saudi Royal family. There is little that fully confirms his biography; but there are indications that he studied engineering but did not complete his degree. Unsurprisingly, his main interest was religion and the Quran. He married several times, a total of 6 wives. His had a total of 26 children.

Bin Laden’s ideology was deeply fundamentalist. His goal was destroy the state of Israel and also to destroy the US and those that supported it. His violent extremist ideology means he instigated several attacks; in Madrid or example, and it culminated in the attacks of September 11th.

 How was the corpse of Bin Laden identified?

Well first and foremost, the American intelligence had amassed huge numbers of photos of the terrorist and could thus, begin by making comparisons between the photos and the corpse. Of course, the face of the corpse has been partially mutilated by a bullet in the head; however, advanced computer programmes could reconstruct the face and compare these to the photos. Secondly, one of Binladen’s wives also came forward to help identify the body.

 DNA Testing to Identify Corpse

DNA forensic testing techniques are undoubtedly the most accurate way of establishing the identity of a corpse. Until the American’s could be fully sure and remove any shadow of doubt that the right man had been killed, they could not announce it to the world. One of Bin Laden’s sisters had died of a brain tumour in an MA hospital; DNA samples were taken from her and compared to DNA samples of Bin Laden. A relationship DNA test is a very reliable way of establishing whether two people are biologically related. Tests did in fact confirm this. The results of DNA testing confirmed with 99.9% accuracy that the alleged body of Bin Laden, was in fact Bin Laden’s.