Mohamed Atta
Atta was born on September 1, 1968, in Kafr el-Sheikh, located in Egypt's Nile Delta region. His father, Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta, was a lawyer, educated in both sharia and civil law. His mother, Bouthayna Mohamed Mustapha Sheraqi, came from a wealthy farming and trading family and was also educated. Bouthayna and Mohamed married when she was 14, via an arranged marriage. The family had few relatives on the father's side and kept a distance from Bouthayna's family. In-laws characterized Atta's father as "austere, strict, and private," and neighbors considered the family reclusive. Atta was the only son; he had two older sisters who are both well-educated and successful in their careers — one as a medical doctor and the other as a professor.
Ahmed Ould Daddah
Daddah was born in Boutilimit, then part of French West Africa, on 7 August 1942. He is the younger brother to former Mauritanian President Moktar Ould Daddah. He attended primary school in Boutilimit, and then received his secondary education at the Lycée Van Vollenhoven in Dakar. After graduating he travelled to Paris to attend university, studying economics at the Faculté de Droit et Sciences Economiques de Paris of the University of Paris, and graduating in the mid-1960s.