11 settembre 2001
NEW YORK
The Attacks
The “September 11, 2001 attacks,” or simply “9/11,” refer to a series of coordinated attacks against the USA, orchestrated by the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Within a few hours, four commercial flights heading to California from the East of the country are hijacked and div
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erted to strike four targets in two major cities: the north and south towers of the World Trade Center complex, the so-called Twin Towers, in New York City; the Pentagon and Capitol Hill, the seat of the US Congress, in Washington. The last target would be the only one missed. The first plane, an American Airlines Boeing 767, with 76 passengers on board, is hijacked and aimed at Lower Manhattan, crashing into the World Trade Center, the complex of buildings that housed the Twin Towers. It hits the north tower’s facade at 8:46 am, 2:46 pm in Italy. Evacuations and rescue efforts begin, but within 17 minutes, a second Boeing 767, operated by United Airlines, crashes into the south tower with 51 passengers on board. Within less than two hours, both towers collapse, killing those who were trapped on the higher floors of the buildings, the rescuers working inside, and also people who were near the buildings. At 9:37 am, shortly after the second plane crashes into the south tower, an American Airlines Boeing 757 crashes into the west facade of the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Army. A few minutes later, another Boeing was supposed to crash into the Capitol, the seat of the American Congress, but some of the 33 passengers revolted and tried to thwart the terrorists’ plan. It crashes at 10:03 am in Pennsylvania, 200 kilometers away from the intended target it was meant to destroy.
The Victims
The overall death toll of the attack is 2,977 victims, including the 19 hijackers from the four planes. Among them, 2,606 people died just in the Twin Towers, 246 passengers from the four flights (including crew members), and 125 people at the Pentagon. Among the rescuers who intervened in New York, the highest price was paid by the firefighters of the New York City Fire Department: 343 firefighters died during the rescue operations.
The Perpetrators
The attack is claimed by Al-Qaeda, in Arabic “the base,” a Sunni terrorist organization led by Osama Bin Laden: a Saudi fundamentalist, son of a construction magnate, who became known during the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and later became one of the main public enemies of the United States. The motivation was the US involvement in conflicts “against Muslims,” in addition to its support for Israel.
The 19 jihadists who carried out the attack were divided into three teams of 5 people and one of four: 15 were Saudis, two were Emiratis, one was Egyptian, and one was Lebanese. The terrorists who physically hijacked the planes had been trained in aviation in the US.
What Happened After September 11th?
The attack triggered an immediate reaction from the USA, with the war in Afghanistan to uproot the Taliban regime (close to Al-Qaeda) and neutralize Bin Laden himself. The US intervention overturned the Taliban regime, which resurfaced exactly two decades later with the withdrawal of American troops from the country in August 2021 and the recapture of Kabul. In 2003, in the midst of the “War on Terror” declared by then-President George W. Bush, the USA led an international coalition in a second conflict against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq (although no links to the 9/11 attacks would be proven, nor the presence of the “chemical weapons” cited as one of the triggers for the attack). Bin Laden, on the other hand, was only eliminated in 2011, with a raid on his hideout in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
The World Trade Center was rebuilt in New York, on the ashes of the previous site, with a single skyscraper replacing the two towers: the One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower.