15th Anniversary of 9/11: 10 facts

Today is the 15th anniversary of the tragic 9/11 attacks. Here are 10 facts related to these terrorist attacks on the twin towers. 

1. On September 11, 2001, attack on World Trade Centre rocked US and the world. The incident killed nearly 2,996 people. Another three have died in last 15 years due to smoke inhalation.

2. The attackers of Islamic origin held attacks and were reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist organization.

3. Al-Qaeda initially planned to target nuclear installations rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but decided against it, fearing things could “get out of control.

4. The alleged 19 hijackers of the attack, including Mohammad Atta being the leader, were never even identified in the investigations that followed the events of 9/11. According to some reports of mainstream media, at least 7 FBI named perpetrators are still alive and free.

5. The US government paid an average compensation of $1.8 million to the families of the victims of 9/11.

6. A third skyscraper collapsed late in the afternoon on 9/11. This was WTC 7, a 47-story building that the government’s final report says fell into its own footprint due to office fires. The building’s tenants included U.S. intelligence agencies and a company led in part by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

7. It took the fire fighters a total of 100 days to extinguish the fire ignited by the attacks in New York completely. An estimated 18,000 people developed diseases due to inhalation of toxic dust from fire and debris. 

8. 9/11 was not the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. A bombing in February of 1993 killed six people.

9. The phrase ‘Ground zero’, used for the site of the World Trade Centre, was originally used to refer to the site of the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima in 1945.

10. September 11 is now remembered as 'Patriot Day' in the US in memory of those killed.