On this day in history, September 11, in the year 2001, United States of America (US) faced one of the most terrible terror attacks which killed 2,999 people. During the attack, 19 terrorists hijacked four flights of US and crashed them at different spots, causing a devastating terror attack that shook the nation and the whole world.
The 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes and carried out suicide attack against different targets. Two of them were crashed at the twin towers of World Trade Center in New York City, third crashed near the Pentagon at Washington D.C., while the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
All the planes hijacked were bound for California and were selected as they contained a large amount of fuel which made the planes possible missile during the crash. The attackers were terrorists from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, and were financed by terror organisation al-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden. They targeted US due to its alleged role for supporting Israel, involvement in the Persian Gulf War and its continued presence of military in the middle-east.
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The first plane was an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel. At 8:45 am, it crashed into the 80th floor of the 110 floored North tower of World Trade Center. Just 18 minutes after this attack, a second plane — United Airlines Flight 175 Boeing 767- hit the South Tower of World trade center near the 60th floor.
The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, circled over Washington D.C and crashed into the west side of the Pentagon Military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. The fourth plane United Flight 93 was hijacked, and passengers came to know about the attack of earlier flights. Suspecting that the flight will have similar fate, reports claim that they attacked the hijackers and crashed the plane in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m.
It was one of the worst terror attacks ever to occur in the world and America retaliated with counter attack on the Taliban and al-Qaeda. President George W. Bush declared war against Taliban regime in Afghanistan with Operation Enduring Freedom. The mastermind of the attack, Osama bin Laden, was eventually killed on May 2, 2011, when he was finally tracked down in a hideout at Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed by US forces.
