On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized four commercial aircraft, crashing two into New York's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, while a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought to regain control.
The attacks killed 2,977 people and were the culmination of years of al-Qaeda planning and escalating attacks against US interests, under Osama bin Laden's leadership.
9/11 transformed US security and foreign policy, triggering the “War on Terror”, the US invasion of Afghanistan and sweeping changes to intelligence, airport security and counterterrorism policies.
9/11 Anniversary: What Happened On September 11, 2001?
The September 11, 2001 attacks saw 19 al-Qaeda hijackers crash four commercial aircraft into targets in New York and Washington, killing 2,977 people and fundamentally reshaping US security and foreign policy
Summary
On September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers seized control of four commercial passenger aircraft in the United States in a coordinated terrorist attack. Two planes were flown into New York's World Trade Center, a third struck the Pentagon near Washington DC, while a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew attempted to regain control of the aircraft.
The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 people. This was the single largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil. The attacks caused the deaths of 441 first responders, the greatest loss of emergency responders on a single day in American history.
What Happened On The Morning Of 9/11?
In a coordinated attack that turned the planes into weapons, the terrorists intentionally flew two of the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, a global business complex in New York City, causing the towers to collapse. They also flew a third plane into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington, Virginia. Passengers and crew members on the fourth plane launched a counterattack, forcing the hijacker pilot—who was flying the airplane toward Washington DC—to crash the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, near the town of Shanksville.
8:46 am: American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.
9:03 am: United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.
9:37 am: American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.
9:59 am: South Tower collapsed.
10:03 am: United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.
10:28 am: North Tower collapsed.
The 9/11 Commission gives the authoritative chronology of the attacks and says the Twin Towers collapsed less than 90 minutes after the first impact.
In the 1980s, young Muslims from around the world went to Afghanistan to join as volunteers in a jihad (or holy struggle) against the Soviet Union. A wealthy Saudi, Usama Bin Ladin, was one of them. Following the defeat of the Soviets in the late 1980s, Bin Ladin and others formed al Qaeda to mobilize jihads elsewhere.
Who Carried Out The 9/11 Attacks And Why?
19 young Arabs acting at the behest of Islamist extremists headquartered in distant Afghanistan carried out the attacks. Some had been in the United States for more than a year, mixing with the rest of the population. Though four had training as pilots, most were not well-educated. Most spoke English poorly, some hardly at all. In groups of four or five, carrying with them only small knives, box cutters, and cans of Mace or pepper spray, they had hijacked the four planes and turned them into deadly guided missiles.
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The 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamist extremists had given plenty of warning that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers. Although Osama Bin Ladin himself would not emerge as a signal threat until the late 1990s, the threat of Islamist terrorism grew over the decade.
The 9/11 Commission traces the plot to al-Qaeda's development in Afghanistan and the planning of the “planes operation”.
The 9/11 attacks followed years of escalating al-Qaeda violence against US interests. The group carried out the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors. US intelligence had initially viewed Osama bin Laden primarily as a financier rather than a terrorist leader. In 1998, bin Laden and other extremists issued a declaration calling for attacks against Americans worldwide, while al-Qaeda continued planning operations against US targets.
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How Did 9/11 Change The US And The World?
The attacks exposed major failures in the US government's ability to gather and share intelligence about al-Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission found that agencies had failed to share crucial information and that responsibilities were not clearly coordinated across the intelligence, law-enforcement and national-security systems.
The Commission subsequently called for a more coordinated national and global strategy against terrorism, including better intelligence-sharing between government agencies, stronger coordination of homeland security and measures to prevent and prepare for future attacks. Its recommendations also led to major changes in how the US organised its intelligence and counterterrorism efforts.
Various heads of state expressed solidarity on the completion of 25 years of the 9/11 attacks. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and many others expressed solidarity with the victims of the deadly attacks.
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther, the 24-year-old “Man in the Red Bandana” who gave his own life to save as many as 18 others in the South Tower on 9/11. The award was accepted by his mother Alison and sister Paige.
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