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With 665,793 views on Friday, 11 September 2026 our article of the day is September 11 attacks.

The September 11 attacks, colloquially known as 9/11, were a coordinated series of suicide attacks perpetrated by the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. A total of 19 hijackers commandeered four commercial passenger airliners. The first two planes were flown into each of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, while the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural field in Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt.

The ringleader, Mohamed Atta, flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. At 9:03 a.m. Marwan al-Shehhi flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower. Both collapsed within an hour and forty-two minutes, destroying the remaining five structures in the complex. Hani Hanjour flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. United Airlines Flight 93, hijacked by Ziad Jarrah, was believed to target either the United States Capitol or the White House. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted and the hijackers crashed the aircraft into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered a ground stop for all traffic in U. S. airspace, requiring all airborne aircraft to return to their point of origin or divert to Canada. The actions undertaken in Canada to support incoming aircraft and their occupants were collectively titled Operation Yellow Ribbon.

That evening, the Central Intelligence Agency informed President George W. Bush that its Counterterrorism Center had identified the attacks as having been the work of al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden. The United States responded by invading Afghanistan and launching its Global War on Terror, with the stated goal of eliminating hostile groups it deemed terrorist organizations and the governments it purported to support them. NATO's invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty—its only usage to date—called upon allies to fight al-Qaeda as well. As U. S. and allied invasion forces swept through Afghanistan, bin Laden eluded them. He denied any involvement until 2004, when excerpts of a taped statement in which he accepted responsibility for the attacks were released. Al-Qaeda's cited motivations included U. S. support of Israel, the presence of U. S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq. The nearly decade-long manhunt for bin Laden concluded in May 2011, when he was killed during a U. S. military raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan continued for another decade.

The attacks killed 2,977 people, injured thousands more, and gave rise to long-term health consequences while causing at least US$10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history, as well as the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement personnel in American history, killing 343 and 72 members, respectively. The crashes of Flight 11 and Flight 175 were the deadliest aviation disasters of all time, and the collision of Flight 77 with the Pentagon resulted in the fourth-highest number of ground fatalities in a plane crash in history. The destruction of the World Trade Center and its environs seriously harmed the U. S. economy and induced global market shocks. Many other countries strengthened anti-terrorism legislation and expanded their powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The total number of deaths caused by the attacks, combined with the death tolls from the conflicts they directly incited, has been estimated by the Costs of War Project to be more than 4.5 million.

Cleanup of the World Trade Center site (colloquially known as "Ground Zero") was completed in May 2002, while the Pentagon was repaired within a year. After delays in the design of a replacement complex, six new buildings were planned to replace the lost towers at the World Trade Center site, along with a museum and memorial dedicated to those who were killed or injured in the attacks. The tallest building, One World Trade Center, began construction in 2006 and opened in 2014. Memorials to the attacks include the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City; the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia; and the Flight 93 National Memorial at the Pennsylvania crash site.

This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:44 UTC on Saturday, 12 September 2026.

For the full current version of the article, see September 11 attacks on Wikipedia.

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