NEW YORK: This day marks 21 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during which thousands of New Yorkers lost their lives, and the area surrounding the Twin Towers was all but destroyed.
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.
Additional people died of 9/11-related cancer and respiratory diseases in the months and years following the attacks.
Four passenger airliners departed from airports in the were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Two of the planes were crashed into the North and South towers, of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. Within an hour and 42 minutes, both 110-story towers collapsed. A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, which led to a partial collapse of the building’s west side. The fourth plane, was initially flown toward Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers thwarted the hijackers.
9/11 is the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed, respectively.Suspicion quickly fell on al-Qaeda. Although al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, in 2004 he claimed responsibility for the attacks, and they cited US support of Israel, the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives.The destruction of the World Trade Center and nearby infrastructure seriously harmed the economy of Lower Manhattan and had a significant effect on global markets, which resulted in the closing of Wall Street until September 17 and the civilian airspace in the U.S. and Canada until September 13.
Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. On November 18, 2006, construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site. The building was officially opened on November 3, 2014.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’ in a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
