FILE-911 ATTACKS: File of the September 11, 2001 attacks and aftermath, on the eve of the 13th anniversary.

Record ID: 355835

  • Title: FILE-911 ATTACKS: File of the September 11, 2001 attacks and aftermath, on the eve of the 13th anniversary.
  • Date: 10th September 2014
  • Summary: ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 11, 2001) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) SMOKE BILLOWING AND WATER BEING SPRAYED ONTO THE PENTAGON AT CRASH SITE, WITH THE U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING IN DISTANCE SMOKE BILLOWING AND PEOPLE STANDING NEARBY HELICOPTER TAKING OFF FROM AREA NEAR PENTAGON AS SMOKE BILLOWS FROM THE BUILDING FLAMES BURNING ON ROOF OF PENTAGON FLAMES SEEN IN WI
  • Embargoed: 25th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA6WMX1BJSS9Q4QREG1S5L8RA3R
  • Story Text: Somber crowds are expected to gather in New York City, Washington D.C and Shanksville in Pennsylvania on Thursday (September 11) to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attack by al Qaeda on the United States 13 years ago.
    Preparation for the ceremonies are taking place as the U.S. mulls a military attack on Islamic State, a militant group that is an offshoot of al Qaeda's Islamist ideology, in its rapidly expanding territories in both Iraq and Syria.
    The U.S. and its allies view the group, which has recently released videos of its fighters beheading two American hostages, as an increasingly dangerous force.
    U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce his plans on Wednesday evening, about 12 hours before the commemoration ceremonies begin.
    In New York City, the ceremony will take place at the World Trade Center, where rebuilding efforts are nearing completion and an area that was once a smoldering grave and a fenced-off construction site is now largely woven back into the city's fabric.
    Moments of silence are expected to be held at the Ground Zero site, timed to the moments the two jets crashed into the towers and when the buildings fell, as well as to the moments the plane struck the Pentagon and the crash of the jet in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
    Although reconstruction has been plagued by delays, two of the new skyscrapers built around the site of the fallen Twin Towers are now open, while 1 World Trade Center, the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere, is due to open next year.
    Blocks that were off-limits for more than a decade are now open to the public. Many hundreds of tourists pose for photographs each day around the two memorial waterfalls that mark the footprints of the Twin Towers, set in a paved plaza dotted with linden, oak and Callery pear trees.
    Obama is expected to speak at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, during a private ceremony on Thursday morning attended by senior military officials and relatives of the people killed in the attack on the building.
    The only ceremony open to the general public on Thursday is at the Flight 93 National Memorial, which marks the site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the four commercial airliners hijacked by Qaeda militants crashed into a field.
    The Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian award, honoring the passengers and crew who were aboard that flight will go on public display for the first time, the National Park Service said.
    Nineteen hijackers were killed in the suicide attacks, for which Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda claimed credit, leading to the U.S. war in Afghanistan and indirectly to the invasion of Iraq.
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