New York City: 11 septembre 2001
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the deadliest terrorist
attacks in history occurred in the United States, concurrently in New York City,
Washington, D.C. and near Pittsburgh. Four passenger jets were hijacked and
three were deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Both towers of the World Trade Center subsequently collapsed, and part of the
Pentagon was destroyed in the ensuing fire. The fourth hijacked plane crashed
in a Pennsylvania field after passengers and crew tried to retake control of
the plane from hijackers. Casualties were in the thousands: 265 on the planes;
2672 people, including 343 firefighters who had rushed in, at the World Trade
Center; and 125 at the Pentagon.
Some passengers on the doomed flights were able to make phone
calls reporting on events on board. They reported that there was more than one
hijacker on each plane (a total of 19 were later identified) and that they took
control of the planes using box-cutter knives.
The attack had immediate and profound global political effects
and inspired an international outpouring of memorials and services amongst those
sympathetic to the victims. There was also a significant amount of celebration
in some communities hostile to US policies, which Americans generally found
puzzling, disturbing and highly offensive. The massive undertaking of rescue
and recovery took months, with the clean up continuing through May. The task
of providing assistance to the survivors and the families of victims is ongoing.
Though no group has claimed responsibility, the U.S. government
immediately launched a full-scale response, stating its intentions to go to
war against those responsible. In late September, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair released evidence compiled by Western intelligence agencies connecting
Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi terrorist with close ties with the Afghan Taliban
leadership, and bin Laden's Al Qaida organisation. After trying and failing
to get the Taliban to extradite Osama bin Laden and all other al Qaida leaders
based in Afghanistan, a coalition led by the United States launched an attack
in Afghanistan on October 7. After the U.S. attack removed the Taliban from
power, a videotape was discovered abandoned in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which
showed bin Laden discussing the attacks in a context which makes clear he approved.
Following the attack, the United States government has been
on heightened alert for new terrorist attacks, periodically warning of "imminent
attacks". In late September, cases of anthrax started breaking out; no
connection to the September 11 attack has been found, though reports emerged
in March 2002 that one of the hijackers was infected with cutaneous anthrax.
The fires at the World Trade Center site continued to burn
for three months while rescue workers removed and sifted through debris. Five
months after the attack, the last survivors were released from the hospital.
By six months afterwards, the 1.5 million tons of debris had been removed from
the WTC site and work continued below ground level despite concerns that the
seawall around the site might collapse. Ceremonies marking the end of the debris
removal took place at the end of May 2002 >> more...
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