Victims Of 9/11 Terror Attacks Honored On 20th Anniversary

The United States on Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, as the country closes the chapter on its war against terrorism in Afghanistan and turns the page to focus on new security threats posed by China and others.

Photo Insert: (L-R) Former President Bill Clinton, former First Lady Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden

The 3,000 victims were honored through a series of ceremonies in more than 90 countries, with some bereaved families reflecting on how the traumatic event remains fresh in memory despite the passage of 20 years in the difficult process of moving forward, Kyodo News reported.

The events were also joined by President Joe Biden and former President George W. Bush, who led the U.S. response to the terror attacks and started the war in Afghanistan a month later against the al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban regime, which harbored the group.

Biden did not deliver any speeches, having released the day before a video message commemorating the lives that were lost and highlighting the importance of national unity as seen in the days after Sept. 11.

Bush, in his speech at one of the events, recalled how he was "proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people" but lamented the current state of the nation plagued with political and social division.

"When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own. Malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument and every argument into a clash of cultures," he said.

"So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear, and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together," he added.

The anniversary followed the completion of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan less than two weeks earlier, concluding what had become the longest U.S. war in history.

Despite spending an estimated $2 trillion and seeing more than 2,400 service members killed during the war, the U.S. failure in Afghanistan was apparent in the final weeks as Afghan security forces crumbled and the Taliban returned to power for the first time in 20 years following its removal by U.S.-led forces.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists from the Islamist extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, deliberately crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center complex in lower Manhattan and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

A fourth plane crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes by air from the nation's capital, after 40 passengers and crew members on board resisted hijackers.

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