United States invasion of Afghanistan
On the morning of 11 September 2001, al-Qaeda carried out four coordinated attacks on the United States. Four commercial passenger jet airliners were hijacked. The hijackers – members of al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell – intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both buildings collapsed within two hours from fire damage related to the crashes, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C., to target the White House or the United States Capitol. No flights had survivors. In total, 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers, died and more than 6,000 others injured in the attacks. According to the New York State Health Department, 836 first responders, including firefighters and police personnel, had died as of June 2009.
History of New York City (1978–present)
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist hijackers linked to the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda piloted two hijacked passenger airliners into each of the twin 110 story World Trade Center towers. The airplanes, designated for transcontinental flights and therefore fully loaded with jet fuel, were hijacked mid-flight and intentionally crashed into the towers in the early morning hours of September 11. The crashes caused massive structural damage during impact, ripping gaping holes into the towers, and ignited raging fires, that caused both weakened towers to collapse in less than two hours. Together with a simultaneous attack on the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a failed plane hijacking that resulted in a plane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2,977 victims died in the attacks.