9/11: The al-Qaeda attack that
stopped the world
- From: news.com.au
- May 02, 2011 2:28PM
IT was the horrifying moment that
stopped the world.
On September 11, 2001, a series of
devastating suicide attacks rocked the US, killing 2976 people.
Nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists
hijacked four commercial passenger planes and crashed two of them into the Twin Towers
of the World Trade
Center in New York, with the buildings collapsing in
less than two hours. Everyone on board the planes was killed, along with many
working in the buildings.
A third airliner was crashed into
the Pentagon in Virginia, while a fourth plane
crashed into a field near Shanksville,
Pennsylvania after passengers and
crew attempted to retake control of the jet.
Following the attacks the Federal
Bureau of Investigation launched the largest criminal inquiry in the history of
the US, telling that the US
Senate that there is "clear and irrefutable" evidence linking
al-Qaeda and Bin Laden to the events.
The US
responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror, invading Afghanistan
in an attempt to depose the Taliban, who harboured al-Qaeda terrorists.
Attention was also focused on Iraq.
According to CBS News just hours after the attacks Defence Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld told his aides to come up with plans to strike Iraq –
even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.
The Iraq War began on March 20,
2002, with the invasion of Iraq
by US troops under the administration of former President George Bush. The US has since begun winding down its operations
in Iraq.
The September 11 attacks had a
severe economic impact on the US
and world markets. When the stock markets – which did not open on September 11
– opened the next day the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market plunged 7.1
per cent, a record one-day point decline.
US stocks lost $1.4 trillion in
value by the end of the week.
The attacks rocked the world with
numerous countries, including China,
the UK, France and India, introducing anti-terrorism
legislation following the attacks.
