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.
Abdillahi Suldaan Mohammed Timacade
Timacade was born in 1920 in the small town of Galooley, situated near Gabiley in the northwestern Somaliland region of Somalia. He hailed from a Habr Awal Isaaq family, and belonged to the Jibriil Abokor subclan that predominately inhabits the Gabiley region. After having spent some time in Ethiopia and Djibouti in the 1940s and 1950s, he returned to Gabiley and took part in the independence movements against the then ruling British administration of the former British Somaliland protectorate.