The anniversary comes shortly after the end of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, launched some 20 years ago to root out al Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attacks.
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The US today commemorate the 20th anviversary of 9/11 tragedy that sent shockwaves around the world 20 years ago. Two decades ago, on this very day 19 AlQaeda terrorists hijacked four aircrafts in United States with a sinister design. Two aircrafts crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York while one of them crashed into Pentagon outside Washington.
The fourth plane crashed into rural Pennysylvania as the passengers tried to take back the control from the hijackers. 2,977 people were killed in these dastardly attacks, raising the spectre of terrorism. Most of those killed were American nationals but citizens of more than 100 countries lost their lives as well The mastermind behind these attacks was the founder of the terror outfit Al Qaeda – Osama bin Laden.
The irony is that most of these hijackers were of Saudi origin, all were trained in Afghanistan and four of them had received training at the flight training schools in United States. The incident led to the global outrage with the then US President George Bush calling for a global war on terror.
US troops were sent to Afghanistan under the Operation Enduring Freedom which led to the ouster of the then regime in Kabul. Terrorists were hunted down and Osama Bin Laden was killed a decade later on 2nd May 2011 in Pakistan’s Abbotabad. The concerted move by the global community over the 20 years has exposed the nefarious designs of terrorists and underlined the need to weed out the menace of terrorism.
President Joe Biden will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States on Saturday by visiting each of the sites where hijacked planes crashed in 2001, seeking to honor the victims of the devastating assault.
Biden will begin the day in New York, where he will attend a ceremony at 8:30 EDT at the site where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood before planes struck the two buildings and caused them to collapse.
Then he will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed into a field after passengers overtook the hijackers and prevented another target from being hit.
Finally Biden will return to the Washington area to visit the Pentagon, the symbol of U.S. military might that was pierced by another of the planes that were used as missiles that day.
The anniversary comes shortly after the end of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, launched some 20 years ago to root out al Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attacks.
Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops in August, months after a deadline set by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, and the resulting rapid fall of the country to the Taliban has drawn criticism from members of both political parties.