What happened on 9/11?

On September 11, 2001, al Qaeda terrorists aboard three hijacked passenger planes carried out coordinated suicide attacks against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board, after passengers and crew attempted to wrest control from the hijackers. Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The first hit the North Tower at 08:46 Eastern Time. The second crashed into the South Tower at 09:03. The buildings were set on fire, trapping people on the upper floors, and wreathing the city in smoke. In less than two hours, both 110-storey towers collapsed in massive clouds of dust. At 09:37 the third plane destroyed the western face of the Pentagon - the giant headquarters of the US military just outside the nation's capital, Washington DC. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 after passengers fought back. It is thought the hijackers had meant to attack the Capitol Building in Washington DC. In all, 2,977 people (not counting the 19 hijackers) lost their lives, most of them in New York. Led by Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda blamed the US and its allies for conflicts in the Muslim world. Nineteen people carried out the hijackings, working in three teams of five and one of four (on the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania). Less than a month after the attacks, President George W. Bush led an invasion of Afghanistan to eradicate al-Qaeda and hunt down Bin Laden. However, it was not until 2011 that US troops finally located and killed Bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan.