US marks 25 years since 9/11 attacks with leaders in new roles

The United States commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on September 11, 2026, honoring nearly 3,000 people killed in strikes that permanently shifted domestic security. The country halted morning activities across several cities to recall the victims.

Coordinated strikes hit New York and Washington

Nineteen hijackers executed the plot.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization commandeered four commercial airplanes across the country, flying two of them directly into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon near Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into an open field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members attempted to regain control of the aircraft from the attackers. The coordinated destruction caused immediate casualties across all three crash zones.

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• Two hijacked airliners struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York.
• One airliner crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Department of Defense near Washington.
• One airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after crew and passengers resisted the hijackers.

Military action launched the War on Terror

The administration of President George W. Bush declared the War on Terror immediately following the strikes. In October 2001, United States military forces invaded Afghanistan to dismantle the Taliban regime that had provided refuge to Al-Qaeda operatives.

United States armed forces maintained sustained operations across Afghanistan after the initial October 2001 invasion.

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American forces tracked the Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan

Osama bin Laden emerged as the primary figure responsible for directing the attacks on American soil. He managed to evade international capture for nearly a decade while remaining in hiding. American military forces located and killed the Al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan in May 2011.

Current government officials held different positions in 2001

Key political figures who currently govern in Washington occupied vastly different stations when the planes struck in 2001. Donald Trump worked as a real estate and construction businessman, Marco Rubio served as a state representative in Florida, J.D. Vance attended Middletown High School in Ohio, and Pete Hegseth studied as an undergraduate at Princeton University in New Jersey.