The September 11 attacks, also commonly referred to as 9/11, were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the militant Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States of America on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
On that morning, four commercial airliners
traveling from the northeastern United States to California were hijacked mid-flight
by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. The hijackers
were organized into three groups of five hijackers and one group of four. Each
group had one hijacker who had received flight training and took over control
of the aircraft. Their explicit goal was to crash each plane into a prominent
American building, causing mass casualties and partial or complete destruction
of the targeted buildings.
The first plane to hit its target was American
Airlines Flight 1. It was flown into the
North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan at 8:46 am.
Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 am, the World Trade Center's South Tower was
hit by United Airlines Flight 175. Both
110-story towers collapsed within an 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, flown from Dulles International Airport, was hijacked over Ohio. At 9:37 am, it crashed into the west side of the
Pentagon (the headquarters of the American military) in Arlington County,
Virginia, causing a partial collapse of the building's side. The fourth, and
final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, was flown in the direction of Washington,
D.C. The plane's passengers
attempted to regain control of the aircraft away from the hijackers and
ultimately diverted the flight from its intended target; it crashed into a
field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 am. Investigators determined that
Flight 93's target was either the White House or the U.S. Capitol.
In the immediate aftermath of the
attacks, suspicion quickly fell onto al-Qaeda. The United States under George
W. Bush administration formally responded by launching the War on Terror and invading
Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had not complied with U.S. demands to
expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and extradite al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden escaped to the White Mountains where
he came under attack by U.S.-led forces, but managed to breakout. Although bin Laden initially denied any
involvement, in 2004 he formally claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U.S. support of
Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq
as motives. After evading capture for
almost a decade, bin Laden was located in a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan and
subsequently killed during Operation Neptune Spear.
The destruction of the World Trade
Center and nearby infrastructure seriously harmed the economy of New York
City and created a global economic recession. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism
legislation and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligence
agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. The U.S. and Canadian civilian airspaces
were closed until September 13, while Wall Street trading was closed until
September 17. Many closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed, out of
respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was
completed in May 2002, and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. The construction
of the World Trade Center complex's replacement began in November 2006, and the
building opened in November 2014.
The attacks resulted in 2,977
fatalities, over 25,000 injuries, and substantial long-term health consequences,
in addition to at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. 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.
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