On this day twenty years ago, the world was shaken by terror attacks that would forever leave an imprint of sorrow and grief on the lives of the survivors, witnesses, and those who lost their loved ones, in the tragedy that would be known as 9/11.
On 11 September 2001, nineteen Al-Qaeda* terrorists hijacked four commercial planes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC, and the fourth aircraft crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
As a result of the attacks, apart from 19 terrorists, 2,977 people died, while 25,000 were injured.
Less than a month later, the United States invaded Afghanistan after then-president George Bush announced the beginning of the "War on Terror" to dismantle al-Qaeda and stop it from using Afghan soil as a launching pad for international terrorist attacks by toppling the Taliban* rulers. The US wrapped up its longest war in late August 2021, with a chaotic evacuation mission. Despite a nearly 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, American troops and the US-trained Afghan army were unable to stop the Taliban from coming back to power.
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*A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
