Al-Qaeda ( or ; , , translation: "The Base", "The Foundation" or "The Fundament" and alternatively spelled
al-Qaida, al-Qæda and sometimes
al-Qa'ida) is a global militant
Sunni Islamist organization founded by
Osama bin Laden,
Abdullah Azzam, and several others, at some point between August 1988 and late 1989, with origins traceable to the Arab volunteers who fought against the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and an
Islamist,
extremist,
wahhabi jihadist group. It has been designated as a
terrorist group by the
United Nations Security Council, the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the
European Union, the United States, Russia, India, and various other countries (see below). Al-Qaeda has carried out many attacks on targets it considers
kafir.