The 9/11 attacks, also known as the September 11 attacks, were a sequence of airline hijackings and suicide strikes executed in 2001 by 19 militants linked with the Islamic extremist organization al-Qaeda  aimed at targets in the United States. These attacks were the deadliest terrorist incidents in American history that took place on American soil. The attacks caused widespread death and destruction in New York City and Washington, DC  prompting a colossal U.S  campaign against terrorism. 

All 19 terrorists perished and  according to many researchers the police and fire departments in New York were particularly affected, as hundreds of officials rushed to the scene of the attacks, and more than 400 police officers and firefighters lost their lives.  

History Of 9/11 Attack  

The September 11 attacks were mainly caused by Osama bin Laden, the leader of the militant Islamic group al-Qaeda, who had misguided beliefs about the United States leading up to the attacks. Abu Walid al-Masri, an Egyptian who was associated with bin Laden in Afghanistan during the 1980s and 90s, stated that bin Laden became more and more convinced that America was weak before the attacks. 

Masri recalled that bin Laden believed that the United States was much weaker than those around him thought, citing the bombing of the Marines base in Beirut in 1983 that forced them to flee from Lebanon, killing 241 American servicemen, as evidence. Bin Laden believed that the United States was a "paper tiger" because of America's departure from Lebanon after the marine barracks bombing, and the withdrawal of American forces from Somalia in 1993 following the deaths of 18 USA. 

The 9/11 Commission, established in 2002 by President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress, investigating the attacks of 2001, explained that it was then that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "presented a proposal for an operation that would involve training pilots who would crash planes into buildings in the United States."   

 The Attack  

On the 11th of September, 2001, several groups of assailants boarded four domestic planes at three airports on the East Coast. Shortly after takeoff, they incapacitated the crews, some of whom may have been attacked with box cutters that the hijackers had hidden. The hijackers then took control of the planes, which were all large and carrying full loads of fuel, and headed towards the West Coast. At 8:46 AM, the first plane, American Airlines flight 11, which had taken off from Boston, was flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Initially, most observers thought it was an accident involving a small commuter plane. However, 17 minutes later, the second plane, United Airlines flight 175, also from Boston, crashed into the south tower.

 At this point, it became clear that the United States was under attack. Both towers were badly damaged by the impact and caught fire. Some office workers who were trapped above the points of impact chose to jump to their deaths rather than face the infernos inside the towers. The third plane, American Airlines flight 77, which had taken off from Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., hit the southwest side of the Pentagon just outside the city at 9:37 AM, causing a fire. Minutes later, the Federal Aviation Authority ordered a nationwide ground stop. Within the next hour, at 10:03 AM, the fourth plane, United Airlines flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey, crashed near Shanksville in the Pennsylvania countryside after its passengers, who had been informed of events via cellular phone, attempted to overpower their assailants.

Rescue operations began almost immediately as the country and the world tried to come to terms with the enormity of the losses. Nearly 3,000 people died, including some 2,750 people in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania.  

 Conclusion And Hunt Of Bin-Laden  

After a long search, U.S. intelligence finally located him in Abbottabad, a garrison city in Pakistan. On May 2, 2011, following orders from U.S. President Barack Obama, a small team of Navy SEALs attacked his compound in the early morning hours and killed the al-Qaeda leader.