Dikhyaa Mohanty 
America today marks the sombre 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, , which were planned by Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, saw four US passenger jets seized by suicide attackers – two of which were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, just outside the US capital, Washington DC, and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back. In the interim, Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has been hunted down and killed. A towering new skyscraper has risen over Manhattan, replacing the Twin Towers. And less than two weeks ago, the last US soldiers flew from Kabul airport, ending the so-called forever war. But the Taliban who once sheltered bin Laden is back ruling Afghanistan, the mighty US military humiliated.
US president Joe Biden posted a video on the eve of the anniversary and urged Americans to show unity, “our greatest strength. He said – “To me, that’s the central lesson of September 11th. It’s that at our most vulnerable, in the push and pull of all that makes us human, in the battle for the soul of America, unity is our greatest strength.”
Here are some pictures that depict the horror of the 9/11 attack in 2001-
Thick smoke billows into the sky from the area behind the Statue of Liberty, lower left, where the World Trade Center was, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
Satellite image of the field where Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, has become the Flight 93 National Memorial run by the US National Park Service.
The destruction at ground zero can be seen more clearly in this IKONOS image from September 15, 2001.
Fire and smoke billows from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
Flames and smoke pour from a building at the Pentagon in Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
Investigators head into the debris field at the site of a commercial plane crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001.
Pentagon
The falling South Tower of the World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
Pic Courtesy – Google
