On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, four U.S. passenger planes were hijacked within a short period of time. Two were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, while another struck the Pentagon near Washington. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought the hijackers and prevented the plane from reaching its intended target. All those aboard were killed. The 9/11 Commission said the aircraft was likely headed for the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
As reported by IRAF, at 8:46:40 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11, traveling from Boston to Los Angeles, was hijacked and diverted toward New York before crashing into the upper floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
The impact struck floors 93 through 99, killing hundreds of people and triggering a massive fire. The force of the collision and the resulting blaze made all three stairwells in the upper section of the tower impassable from the 92nd floor upward, leaving many people trapped above the impact zone.
Firefighters, police officers and emergency personnel quickly arrived at the scene as evacuation efforts began. The 9/11 Commission said that more than 1,000 emergency responders had reached the site between 8:46 and 9:03 a.m. At the time, however, the full scale of the incident was not yet clear to many of those responding, and the operation initially unfolded as an emergency involving a plane crash and a major fire.
The Second Attack Unfolds Live on Television
Just 17 minutes after the first impact, at 9:03:11 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175, traveling from Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the South Tower after being hijacked.
The attack was broadcast live as U.S. television networks were already showing images of the rescue operation and the burning North Tower. Smoke and flames quickly engulfed the upper floors of the second building.
Until then, many U.S. officials and emergency agencies were still trying to establish what had happened in the first attack. The second impact made clear that the United States was facing a coordinated terrorist attack.
The situation in both towers rapidly deteriorated. Intense fires, thick smoke and structural damage made evacuation and rescue operations increasingly difficult. Some people in the South Tower were able to descend through the stairwells, while many others remained trapped on the upper floors.
At 9:59 a.m., about 56 minutes after the second plane struck, the South Tower collapsed, sending a massive cloud of dust and debris through Lower Manhattan and turning the rescue operation into a full-scale disaster response.
Twenty-nine minutes later, at 10:28 a.m., the North Tower also collapsed. Within less than an hour and a half, both towers had been destroyed.
According to the official 9/11 Commission report, more than 2,600 people were killed in the two towers.
Flight 77: The Attack on the Pentagon
The third hijacked aircraft, American Airlines Flight 77, departed Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles at 8:20 a.m. The plane was hijacked at 8:51 a.m., diverted from its route and, at 9:37:46 a.m., crashed at high speed into the western side of the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Virginia.
All 64 people aboard the aircraft were killed, along with 125 people inside the Pentagon.
Flight 93: Passengers Fight Back
The fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, took off from New Jersey at 8:42 a.m. bound for San Francisco. It was hijacked at about 9:28 a.m. and diverted from its original course.
After learning about the attacks in New York and realizing that hijackers had taken control of their aircraft, passengers and crew decided to fight back.
According to the 9/11 Commission, passengers and crew began their attempt to retake control of the aircraft at 9:57 a.m. Their struggle with the hijackers prevented the plane from reaching its intended target.
At 10:03:11 a.m., Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. None of those aboard survived.
9/11 Commission: 2,973 People Killed
According to the official commission report, a total of 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, excluding the 19 hijackers.
More than 2,600 victims were killed at the World Trade Center, 125 at the Pentagon and 256 aboard the four hijacked aircraft. Among those killed at the World Trade Center were 343 firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers and 23 New York Police Department officers.
The death toll, extensive economic losses and failures in prevention and crisis management made the attacks the deadliest terrorist operation in U.S. history. The attacks also fundamentally reshaped American foreign policy, domestic security, intelligence structures and military strategy for years to come.
From a Florida School to the Situation Room: Where Was George W. Bush?
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, then-President George W. Bush was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Florida.
After the first plane struck the North Tower, it was not yet clear that the aircraft had been hijacked or that a larger attack was underway. The second impact, however, made clear that the United States was facing a coordinated assault.
Bush publicly acknowledged for the first time at the school that the United States had come under attack. He was initially flown aboard the presidential aircraft to a military base in Louisiana and was later moved under heavy security to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
Why Did the Finger Point to Afghanistan?
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda had already been identified as major threats to the United States before the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda had previously been blamed for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.
U.S. investigations concluded that bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders played a central role in planning and carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks.
The central issue that soon became a major source of U.S. pressure on the Taliban was the group’s decision to provide bin Laden and al-Qaeda with refuge and an operating base in Afghanistan.
In the official U.S. account, responsibility for planning and carrying out the attacks lay with al-Qaeda. But the Taliban’s hosting of bin Laden and its provision of an environment in which al-Qaeda could operate made Afghanistan the principal target of the ensuing U.S. military campaign.
Bush Orders War in Afghanistan
The Bush administration demanded that the Taliban hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders and dismantle the network’s infrastructure in Afghanistan.
The Taliban rejected the demands, and the confrontation ultimately led to the U.S.-led military intervention and the fall of the Taliban government.
Less than a month after the attacks, the United States and Britain launched military operations against al-Qaeda and Taliban positions in Afghanistan.
The Sept. 11 attacks had therefore transformed, in less than four weeks, from a terrorist assault on U.S. soil into the beginning of a war in Afghanistan. The stated objectives were to remove the Taliban from power and destroy al-Qaeda’s infrastructure.
A War That Lasted Two Decades
The U.S.-led intervention toppled the Taliban government, while American forces remained in Afghanistan to combat al-Qaeda and support the country’s new government.
What had initially been presented as an operation aimed at dismantling al-Qaeda and bringing those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks to justice gradually developed into a prolonged war that lasted nearly two decades.
The Taliban went into opposition after losing power, while a new Afghan government was established with U.S. and allied support. The war, however, did not end. The Taliban reorganized as an insurgent movement and fought Afghan government forces and foreign troops across the country.
The U.S. military mission also evolved. Its focus expanded from direct operations against al-Qaeda to training and supporting Afghan security forces and fighting the Taliban insurgency and other militant groups.
Over two decades, billions of dollars in international assistance were directed toward rebuilding Afghanistan and supporting its government. But structural weaknesses, widespread corruption, fragile state institutions and the heavy dependence of Afghan security forces on foreign support left the republic vulnerable.
When U.S. forces withdrew, Afghanistan’s political and security structures collapsed within a short period.
The End of the War and the Return of the Taliban
In February 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha that paved the way for the withdrawal of U.S. forces and their allies from Afghanistan.
In April 2021, the administration of President Joe Biden announced that U.S. forces would leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of that year. But as the Taliban advanced rapidly and Afghan government and security forces collapsed, the withdrawal accelerated.
The Taliban entered Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, and the Afghan government fell.
The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan in the final hours of Aug. 30, bringing Washington’s 20-year military presence in the country to an end.
The war that began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks thus ended two decades later with the departure of U.S. forces and the Taliban’s return to power.
The outcome highlighted one of the central contradictions of the Afghanistan war: the Taliban, driven from Kabul in 2001, returned to the Afghan capital 20 years later.
For the United States, Sept. 11, 2001, marked the beginning of a war intended to destroy al-Qaeda and prevent Afghanistan from serving as a safe haven for terrorist groups. Two decades later, as American forces were leaving Afghanistan, the Taliban — the same group that had been removed from power in the opening months of the war — once again controlled Kabul.
