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US honours 9/11 dead on 20th anniversary of attacks

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Pilots and airline workers from both United and American Airlines participate in a wreath laying ceremony for their colleagues who were killed on September 11 at the September 11th Memorial in New York City. Photo: AFP

Pilots and airline workers from both United and American Airlines participate in a wreath laying ceremony for their colleagues who were killed on September 11 at the September 11th Memorial in New York City. Photo: AFP

New York - President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to stop at all of the three sites of the attacks to honour lives lost

Published: Sat 11 Sep 2021, 6:21 AM

Updated: Sat 11 Sep 2021, 6:24 AM

  • By
  • AFP

America marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Saturday with solemn ceremonies given added poignancy by the recent chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and return to power of the Taliban.

Heart-wrenching commemorations will unfold at each of the three sites where 19 hijackers crashed packed airliners, striking the cultural, financial and political hearts of the United States and changing the world forever.

At New York's Ground Zero, where two pools of water now stand where the Twin Towers used to, relatives will read out the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed, in a four-hour-long service starting at 8:30 am (1230 GMT).

Six moments of silence will be observed, corresponding with the times the two World Trade Center towers were struck, and fell, and the moments the Pentagon was attacked and Flight 93 crashed.

Monica Iken-Murphy, who lost her 37-year-old husband Michael Iken in the World Trade Center, says this will be a "heightened" anniversary for many Americans.

But for her, as for many other survivors, the pain has never wavered.

"I feel like it just happened," she told AFP.

A whole generation has grown up since the morning of September 11, 2001.

A towering new sky scraper has risen over Manhattan, replacing the Twin Towers. And less than two weeks ago, the last US soldiers flew from Kabul airport, ending the so-called "forever war."

At Ground Zero, some 2,753 people, from all over the world, were killed in the initial explosions, jumped to their deaths, or simply vanished in the inferno of the collapsing towers.

At the Pentagon, an airliner tore a fiery hole in the side of the superpower's military nerve center, killing 184 people in the plane and on the ground.

And in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the third wave of hijackers crashed into a field after passengers fought back, sending United 93 down before reaching its intended target - likely the US Capitol building in Washington.

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will stop at each of these places on Saturday to "honour and memorialise the lives lost," the White House said.

The president had planned for this to be a pivotal day in his nearly eight-month-old presidency.

However, instead of presiding over a moment of unity, Biden will traverse a country angry about the messy Kabul evacuation.

For the relatives of victims, the anniversary, as always, is about keeping the memory of their loved ones alive.

"It's like Pearl Harbour," said Frank Siller, whose firefighter brother Stephen died at the World Trade Center.

"People who weren't alive don't have the same feeling about it as those who were alive. But America has never forgotten about Pearl Harbour and America will never forget about 9/11."



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