The 9/11 or the September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks👿 by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
As in the U.S, the month precedes the day, it is referred to as 9/11.
It was the single deadliest terrorist attack😱 on the U.S soil.
How was it executed?
On the morning of Sept. 11, four-passenger planes✈ which took-off from airports in the north-eastern part of the U.S and were on domestic flight routes⏩ were hijacked by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The hijackers deliberately crashed two of these planes into the World Trade Center🏢 in New York city.
The impact of the crash and the resulting fire🔥 led to the collapse of both 110-storey towers in less than two hours.
A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the U.S. Dept. of Defence), which led to a partial collapse😧 of the building.
The fourth plane was initially flown toward Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field in the state of Pennsylvania, following a fight👊🏼 between the hijackers and the plane’s passengers.
In total, the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people😥.
Massive Economic Blow
The destruction of the World Trade Center and nearby infrastructure caused property losses of around $10 billion💰.
More significantly, it badly shook the global stock markets, which resulted in the closing of Wall Street until Sept. 17🗓.
It also hurt the global airline industry🛫 as many people started avoiding air travel out of fear.
The resurrection of the Towers
In Nov. 2006, construction of One World Trade Center began👷♂ at the World Trade Center site.
The building opened in Nov. 2014.
Why Al Qaeda carried out this attack?
Al-Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden planned this attack in retaliation🤺 of the U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq.
U.S hit back with vengeance
Soon after the attacks, the U.S asked the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which had given refuge to Bin Laden to hand him👋 over to it.
However, the Taliban rejected🚫 the demand.
The U.S responded by launching the ‘War on Terror.’
Its military invaded Afghanistan and in and 💪overthrew the Taliban from power.
However, Bin Laden managed to escape and hid in the mountains⛰ on the Afghanistan Pakistan border.
After evading capture for almost a decade, bin Laden was finally located🔍 in Pakistan and killed by American special forces in May 2011.