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20th anniversary of 9/11: Six moments of silence, reflection
At the 9/11 memorial in New York, relatives wiped away tears, their voices breaking as they read out the names of the almost 3,000 people killed in the Al-Qaeda attacks.
The United States marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with solemn ceremonies given added poignancy by the recent chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and return to power of the Taliban.
At the 9/11 memorial in New York, relatives wiped away tears, their voices breaking as they read out the names of the almost 3,000 people killed in the Al-Qaeda attacks.
The first of six moments of silence were marked at 8.46am, with a bell ringing to symbolise the time the first hijacked plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
At 9:03am, attendees stood still again to mark the moment the South Tower was struck.
At 9.37am, it was the Pentagon, where the hijacked airliner crashed killing 184 people in the plane and on the ground.
At 9.59am, the moment the South Tower fell. At 10.03am, they remembered the fourth plane to crash in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought the hijackers. At 10.28am, it was when the North Tower started falling.
Bruce Springsteen sang I’ll See You in My Dreams in New York, while, smaller ceremonies took place across the country.
US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden were joined at the New York memorial service by former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and their first ladies Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama respectively. Heart-wrenching commemorations also took place at the Pentagon and Shanksville, where former president George W Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks and subsequently launched the Afghanistan war said the unity America showed following the attacks “seems distant” today.
Ahead of Saturday’s commemorations, Biden said in a six-minute message from the White House on Friday calling for “national unity”. “In the days that followed September 11, 2001, we saw heroism everywhere. We also saw something all too rare: national unity,” he said in the video message.
“Unity is what makes us who we are, America at its best,” Biden said. “To me, that’s the central lesson of September 11th.”
Biden then flew to Shanksville, Pennsylvania where he was to lay a wreath. He was slated later on Saturday to return to the Washington area to visit the Pentagon, the symbol of US military might that was pierced by another of the planes that were used as missiles that day.
With inputs from agencies
