21 Years Since 9/11: The Deadliest Attacks on US Soil

The September 11 attacks, also knowns as the 9/11 attacks, on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of modern civilisation. The attacks left thousands dead, and millions scarred for life. Nineteen terrorists of the Islamist extremist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial planes to carry out attacks in different locations in the USA.

Two of these hijacked planes then crashed into the twin towers of Ney York’s World Trade Centre. The attackers first crashed into floors 93 and 99 of the North Tower of WTC at 8:46 AM. Before anyone could even realise a thing, the second plane hit the South Tower of WTC 17 minutes later at 9:03 AM.

When the towers were struck, between 16,400 and 18,000 people were in the WTC complex.

The third plane was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane fought back, and the plane was eventually crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania.

The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations. Of these, 2,753 people were killed in the twin tower attacks in New York whereas 184 people were killed at the Pentagon; and 40 people were killed on Flight 93.

The plan for the 9/11 attacks was hedged by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his associates. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists involved in the attacks were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Lebanon, and one was from Egypt.

Following the 9/11 attacks, the USA launched a strike on global terrorism and carried out several operations to neutralize several locations of al-Qaeda and other such organisations. The US agencies were finally able to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011 in a military operation at his location in Pakistan’s Abbottabad.

In August this year, the USA killed another key member of the conspiracy of the 9/11 attacks, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The US agency neutralised the Al-Qaeda leader in a drone attack in Afghanistan.

The impacts of the Sept. 11 attacks were deeply felt and slow to dissipate. By the following August, half of U.S. adults said the country “had changed in a major way” – a number that actually increased, to 61%, 10 years after the event.

A year after the attacks, in an open-ended question, most Americans – 80% – cited 9/11 as the most important event that had occurred in the country during the previous year. Strikingly, a larger share also volunteered it as the most important thing that happened to them personally in the prior year (38%) than mentioned other typical life events, such as births or deaths. Again, the personal impact was much greater in New York and Washington, where 51% and 44%, respectively, pointed to the attacks as the most significant personal event over the prior year.

Just as memories of 9/11 are firmly embedded in the minds of most Americans old enough to recall the attacks, their historical importance far surpasses other events in people’s lifetimes.