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US President Joe Biden commemorated the 20 years since the 9/11 attacks shattered American lives by visiting each of the sites where airliners have been crushed by jihadist hijackers.
Ceremonies and memorials were held across the country on Saturday to honor victims and first responders, with Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attending services in New York City, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
A minute’s silence was observed in New York at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. to mark the times when planes plunged into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, and again to mark the times when they collapsed.
Silences were also observed for times when a third jet struck the Pentagon in Virginia at 9:37 a.m., and when a fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m.
Biden earlier posted a video message calling for unity despite lingering grief over the terrorist attacks 20 years later.
Tears in New York
In New York City, the names of the victims were read aloud, with singer Bruce Springsteen performing the song “I’ll See You in my Dreams” at a memorial service at Ground Zero.
Thousands of people, including hundreds of firefighters, gathered in Manhattan to mark this grim occasion. There were also former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
More than 440 first responders were killed in the attacks in what remains the largest loss of emergency teams in the country’s history.
“One thing that became clear on September 11 – and has remained clear since – is that America has always been home to heroes who run into danger in order to do what is right,” Obama said in a statement. Saturday.
pennsylvania bells
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President George W Bush attended a moving memorial near Shanksville, Pa., Where Flight 93 crashed.
Both were speakers at the event in Stonycreek Township, which was closed to the public but open to families of the victims and other guests.
The ceremony culminated with the ringing of remembrance bells for every passenger and crew member who perished fighting to regain control of the plane from the hijackers.
Pentagon ceremonies
A commemorative sunrise took place at the Pentagon, Virginia, with the unfurling of a giant American flag on the west side of the building that was hit.
A celebratory ceremony was also held, with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
These will be followed later in secularism by a private wreath-laying ceremony in which Biden and Harris, along with their spouses, will participate.
For the first time, the anniversary of September 11 will take place without the presence of American troops in Afghanistan, where the attacks were planned.
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