US President Joe Biden arrives in NYC for 9/11 commemoration events

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived to New York City for the remembrance events honoring the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on its 20th anniversary, the White House said.

TheSeptember 11 attacks, often referred to as9/11, were a series of four coordinatedterrorist attacksby the militant Islamist terrorist groupal-Qaeda against theUnited States of Americaon the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

On that morning, four commercialairlinerstraveling from thenortheastern United StatestoCaliforniawerehijackedmid-flight by19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Their explicit goal was to crash each plane into a prominent American building, causingmass casualtiesand partial or complete destruction of the targeted buildings.

The first plane to hit its target wasAmerican Airlines Flight 11.It was flown into the North Tower of theWorld Trade Centercomplex inLower Manhattanat 8:46 am. Minutes later, the World Trade Center's South Tower was hit byUnited Airlines Flight 175. Both 110-story towerscollapsedwithin an hour and forty-two minutes, leading to the collapse of the other World Trade Center structures including7 World Trade Center, and significantly damaging surrounding buildings.

A third flight,American Airlines Flight 77, flown fromDulles International Airport, was hijacked overOhio. At 9:37 am, it crashed into the west side ofthe Pentagon inArlington County, Virginia, causing a partial collapse of the building's side. The fourth, and final flight,United Airlines Flight 93, was flown in the direction ofWashington, D.C.The plane's passengers attempted to regain control of the aircraft away from the hijackers and ultimately diverted the flight from its intended target; it crashed into a field nearShanksville, Pennsylvaniaat 10:03 am. Investigators determined that Flight 93's target was either theWhite Houseor theU.S. Capitol.

2977 people were killed and more than 6000 wounded in the 9/11 attacks.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, suspicion quickly fell onto al-Qaeda. The United States formally responded by launching theWar on Terrorandinvading Afghanistanto depose theTaliban, which had not complied with U.S. demands to expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and extradite al-Qaeda leaderOsama bin Laden.

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan