September 11, 2001 attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks

The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States of America carried out on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, in which hijackers took control of four U.S. domestic commercial airliners. The hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City — one into each of the two tallest towers, about 18 minutes apart. Within two hours, both towers had collapsed. The hijackers crashed the third aircraft into the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 80 miles (129 km) east of Pittsburgh, following passenger resistance. The official count records 2,986 deaths in the attacks, including the hijackers.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) states in its final report that the nineteen hijackers who carried out the attack were terrorists, and were all affiliated with the Islamic Al-Qaeda organization. The report named Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national, as the leader of Al-Qaeda, and as the person ultimately suspected responsible for the attacks, with the actual planning being undertaken by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Bin Laden categorically denied involvement in two 2001 statements [1], before admitting in a taped statement a direct link to the attacks.

The 9/11 Commission reported that these hijackers turned the planes into the largest suicide bombs in history. The September 11th attacks are among the most significant events to have occurred so far in the 21st century in terms of the profound economic, social, political, cultural, psychological and military effects that followed in the United States and many other parts of the world.

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