The September 2001 attacks on The World Trade Center and Pentagon remain one of the most vicious foreign terror attacks on US ever. It was the second foreign based attacks after the Pearl Harbour attack by Japan. Close to 3,000 people lost their lives and US faced a period of fear amongst its citizens.
Apart from WTC, Pentagon, the head office of United States Department of Defense was also targeted and though the plane crashed into it didn’t do much damage, but it was still a shocking incident to the whole world. The US government has released some stunning and sorrowful images of the Pentagon attack. See them here.
The 9/11 or 9th September 2001 attacks were four coordinated terror attacks by Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda on the United States. It involved hijacking of four passenger airliners operated by United Airlines and American Airlines by 19 terrorists of the outfit.
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Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were flown right into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. Both the 110-storey towers collapsed in less than 3 hours of been hit. It was one of the biggest loss of life and property for US, as 2,996 people were killed and over $10 billion worth of property was damaged in the attacks.
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It also proved to be one of the most fatal events for firefighters and law enforcement personnel as well, with 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement personnel killed in the event.
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The third plane American Airlines 77 was crashed into the Pentagon, which is the head office of United States Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia. This collapsed the West side of the building. The fourth plane was heading towards Washington DC, but crashed in a field in Shanksville, after passengers and staff tried to overcome the terrorists.
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Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al Qaeda said that US support of Israel, support for attacks against Muslims in Somalia, Lebanon, Chechnya and many such things were the motives behind the attack. 125 people lost their lives in the Pentagon attack and more than 90 countries lost their citizens in the attacks overall.
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Out of the 125 people who lost their lives at the Pentagon, 70 were civilians and 55 were personnel working for US military or US Navy. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, was the highest-ranking military official killed at the Pentagon.
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US President George Bush immediately declared war on terrorism in the aftermath. Their objective was to defeat terrorist like Osama Bin Laden. The US invaded Iraq in search of Weapons of Mass destruction and also invaded Afghanistan in order to oust the Taliban regime from the country. The Talibani forces regrouped in Western Pakistan and the war moved onto Pakistan until Taliban was completely forced out of the region.
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In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was declared a sponsor of terrorism, ever since Iraq invaded Kuwait in the 1990s. Baghdad fell to US troops in 2003 and Saddam’s government was dissolved quickly. Saddam was captured by US forces in 2003 and was later executed in 2006.
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