Attacks of September 11, 2001
The attacks of September 11, 2001, also commonly known by the numeronyms 11S in
Spanish and 9/11 in English, were a series of four suicide terrorist attacks committed in
the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 by the group terrorist
Al Qaeda.345
That morning, four commercial airliners traveling from the Northeast United States to Los
Angeles and San Francisco were hijacked mid-flight by 19 al Qaeda terrorists. The
kidnappers were organized into three groups of five kidnappers and one group of four.
Each group had a hijacker who had received flight training and took over control of the
aircraft. Their explicit objective was to crash each plane into a prominent building, causing
massive casualties and partial or complete destruction of the buildings attacked.
The first aircraft to reach its target was American Airlines Flight 11. It was crashed into the
North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City's Lower Manhattan at
8:46 a.m. m. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m. m., the South Tower of the World
Trade Center was hit by United Airlines Flight 175. Both 110-story towers collapsed in one
hour and forty-two minutes, leading to the collapse of the other World Trade Center
structures, including 7 World Trade Center, and significantly damaging surrounding
buildings.
A third flight, American Airlines Flight 77, which had taken off from Dulles International
Airport, hijacked over Ohio, crashed at 9:37 a.m. m. against the west side of the Pentagon
(US Army headquarters) in Arlington County, Virginia, causing a partial collapse of that
side of the building. The fourth and final hijacked plane was United Airlines Flight 93,
bound for Washington, D.C. The plane's passengers attempted to regain control of the
aircraft away from the hijackers, eventually diverting the flight from its intended target;
crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. m. Investigators
determined that Flight 93's target was either the White House or the United States
Capitol.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, suspicion quickly fell on al Qaeda. The United
States under the George W. Bush administration responded by formally launching the War
on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had failed to comply with
US demands to expel al Qaeda from Afghanistan and extradite the leader. of Al Qaeda,
Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden escaped to the White Mountains, where he was attacked by
US-led forces, but managed to escape.6 Although bin Laden initially denied any
involvement, in 2004 he formally claimed responsibility for the attacks.7 Al Qaeda and Bin
Laden Laden cited US support for Israel, the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia and
sanctions against Iraq as reasons. After evading capture for nearly a decade, bin Laden
was tracked down in a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and later killed during Operation
Neptune's Spear on May 2, 2011.
The destruction of the World Trade Center and nearby infrastructure seriously damaged
New York City's economy and created a global economic recession. Many countries have
strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the powers of law
enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. Civilian airspace in the
United States and Canada was closed until September 13, while Wall Street trading was
closed until September 17. Many closures, evacuations and cancellations followed, out of
respect or fear of further attacks. The cleanup of the World Trade Center site was
completed in May 2002, and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. Construction on
the replacement World Trade Center complex began in November 2006, and the building
opened in November 2014
The attacks resulted in 2,996 deaths, more than 25,000 injuries, and substantial long-term
health consequences, in addition to at least $10 billion in damage to infrastructure and
property.910 It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of humanity and the
deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United
States, with 340 victims,11 and 72 deaths12 and the largest air disasters involving any
aircraft in the history of the aviation. Although being intentionally provoked events, they
are not considered accidents.
Numerous memorials have been built, 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.
