U.S. briefing
Remembering the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people
Hijacked aircraft struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, while a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought their captors.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Most died in New York's World Trade Center towers, which collapsed after being struck by two hijacked airliners.
Another hijacked aircraft struck the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attacked their captors; that plane was apparently heading toward Washington when the passengers fought back.
U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to destroy the terrorist organizations responsible and regimes supporting them. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida operating from Afghanistan, was identified as the attacks' ringleader.
The National September 11 Memorial was dedicated in New York City in 2011, ten years after the attacks. Its two sunken pools mark the footprints of the destroyed Twin Towers, with waterfalls cascading into them.