The 9/11 Attacks

The 9/11 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist assaults on September 11, 2001, carried out by the extremist group al-Qaeda. Nineteen hijackers hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in New York City and one into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. The fourth plane, United Flight 93, was headed for another target but collided in a field after passengers tried to take control. These attacks caused massive destruction, thousands of deaths, and profound changes in U.S. security policies worldwide.