Photo: The northeast face of Two World Trade Center (south tower) after being struck by plane in the south face.Robert on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This year is the 20th anniversary of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks.
The September 11 attacks, often referred to as 9/11, were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the militant Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States of America on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
On that day, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.
Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major US initiatives to combat terrorism and defined the presidency of George W. Bush.
The attacks resulted in 2,977 fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, including the 19 terrorist hijackers aboard the four airplanes.
Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
While 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors.
It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in human history and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 340 and 72 killed respectively.
Numerous memorials have been constructed, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia, and the Flight 93 National Memorial at the Pennsylvania crash site.
honor the victims
in the meantime, Americans will today honor the victims and reflect on how the attacks have shaped the country’s view of the world and itself.
President Joe Biden is slated to visit the three sites associated with the attacks.
He is expected to go to ground zero in New York; to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers tried to regain control of the hijacked plane.
On friday, President Biden in a recorded address to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, urged Americans to embrace unity.
“In the days that followed September 11, 2001, we saw heroism everywhere — in places expected and unexpected,”
“We also saw something all too rare: a true sense of national unity.” he said
Written by Tina Oyinsan