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A PResention on september 11
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9-11: What Happened
The
September 11 attacks
(also referred to as
September 11
,
September 11th
, or
9/11
)
[nb 1]
were a series of four coordinated
terrorist attacks
launched by the
Islamic terrorist
group
al-Qaeda
upon the
United States
in
New York City
and the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area
on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
Four passenger
airliners
were
hijacked
by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists so they could be flown into buildings in
suicide attacks
. Two of those planes,
American Airlines Flight 11
and
United Airlines Flight 175
, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the
World Trade Center
complex in New York City.
Within two hours,
both towers collapsed
with debris and the resulting fires causing partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the WTC complex, as well as significant damage to ten other large surrounding structures.
A third plane,
American Airlines Flight 77
, was crashed into
the Pentagon
(the headquarters of the
United States Department of Defense
), leading to a partial collapse in its western side.
The fourth plane,
United Airlines Flight 93
, was targeted at Washington, D.C.,
[2]
but crashed into a field near
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
, after its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers.
In total,
almost 3,000 people died in the attacks
, including the 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes.
It also was the
deadliest incident for firefighters
in the history of the United States.