Calls for unity as divided US marks 20th anniversary of 9/11
Last updated on: 12 September,2021 11:01 am
Calls for unity as divided US marks 20th anniversary of 9/11
NEW YORK, Sept 12, 2021 (AFP) - America marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Saturday with pleas for unity at solemn ceremonies given added resonance by the messy 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.
"We love you and we miss you," they said as somber violin music played at the official ceremony, attended by President Joe Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
The service at Ground Zero where 2,753 people died -- some of whom jumped to their deaths from the burning towers -- took place under tight security, with Lower Manhattan effectively locked down.
The first of six moments of silence was marked at 8:46 am, with a bell ringing to symbolize the time the first hijacked plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
At 9:03 am, attendees stood still again to mark the moment the South Tower was struck. At 9:37 am, it was the Pentagon, where the hijacked airliner killed 184 people in the plane and on the ground.
At 9:59, the moment the South Tower fell. At 10:03 am, they remembered the fourth plane to crash in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought the hijackers, and at 10:28 am, the North Tower falling.
Mourners clutched photos of their loved ones, their pain still raw despite a whole generation having grown up since the morning of September 11, 2001.
"It feels like it was yesterday. Every year (that) we get further away it becomes more important to remember," said Joanne Pocher-Dzama, whose brother died at the World Trade Center.