The Afghanistan Connection: Unraveling The 9/11 Terrorists' Training Grounds

The 9/11 terrorist attacks were a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. The attacks involved the hijacking of four planes, three of which were used to strike significant U.S. sites. American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175 were flown into the World Trade Center's North and South Towers, respectively, and American Airlines flight 77 hit the Pentagon. United Airlines flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.

Three of the pilots and planners in the Hamburg cell who would take operational control of the September 11 attacks, including the lead hijacker, Mohamed Atta, had a chance meeting on a train in Germany in 1999 with an Islamist militant who suggested they go to Afghanistan to fight jihad. Atta and the other members of the Hamburg group arrived in Afghanistan in 1999, where al-Qaeda was based and operated training camps. Following their training at al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, they were chosen by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's military wing to lead the attacks due to their extensive knowledge of Western culture and language skills.

The 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations

The 9/11 terrorist attacks were carried out by 19 men affiliated with the Islamist jihadist organization al-Qaeda. Of these 19 terrorists, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one was from Lebanon.

The first hijackers to arrive in the United States were Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who settled in San Diego County, California, in January 2000. They were followed by three hijacker-pilots, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah, in mid-2000. Atta, a member of al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell, was the ringleader of the attacks.

The fourth hijacker-pilot, Hani Hanjour, arrived in San Diego in December 2000. Hanjour was not a member of the Hamburg Cell but was a Saudi national. The rest of the "muscle hijackers" arrived in early to mid-2001.

The 9/11 terrorists were trained at al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. They were chosen by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's military wing due to their extensive knowledge of Western culture and language skills. Bin Laden was a member of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families.

The 9/11 terrorists were organized into four teams, each led by a pilot-trained hijacker. Each team was assigned a different flight and a unique target to crash their respective planes into.

The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations. In the aftermath of the attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban regime that had harbored the terrorist group.

Al-Qaeda was based in Afghanistan

Al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988 and was based in Afghanistan. The group was formed from the mujahideen movement that challenged the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan beginning in the late 1970s. Bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan to join the fighting in 1980.

Al-Qaeda was headquartered in Afghanistan from 1989 until 1991, when it moved to Sudan. In 1996, Bin Laden and other members of Al-Qaeda returned to Afghanistan.

Bin Laden established a presence in the region and built a training camp there that became the elite camp for Afghan Arab mujahideen. It was called al-Qa'ida al-'Askariyya, or "the military base", Al-Qaeda's namesake.

Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the attacks

Osama bin Laden was the leader of al-Qaeda, the Islamist extremist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden was a wealthy Saudi who founded al-Qaeda in 1988 to mobilise Arab fighters on the Afghan side of the Soviet-Afghan War. Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, bin Laden sought to establish al-Qaeda's military role in the Middle East.

When American troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia for the Gulf War, bin Laden denounced Western influence, particularly American influence, in Muslim-majority countries. In 1996, bin Laden declared a jihad, a religiously sanctioned war, against the United States, leading to violent al-Qaeda attacks on American interests overseas. Bin Laden believed that a devastating strike on American soil would convince the U.S. to withdraw from the Muslim world.

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies had been monitoring bin Laden and al-Qaeda during the 1990s, warning senior government officials of a growing threat. Even so, most senior U.S. policymakers did not consider al-Qaeda a priority.

Al-Qaeda carried out several attacks against the United States before 9/11. In 1993, terrorists with links to an Islamist extremist group detonated explosives in a van parked underneath the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring thousands. In 1998, al-Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing more than 200 American, Kenyan, and Tanzanian citizens and wounding another 4,500 people.

Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were also responsible for the 2000 attack on the USS Cole during its fuel stop in Yemen, which killed 17 Navy sailors and injured nearly 40 other crew members.

Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. military operation on May 1, 2011.

The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people

The attacks on September 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000 others. The attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder-suicide.

The attacks were carried out by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. The terrorists hijacked four commercial planes, crashing two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The attacks had a profound and lasting impact on the country, especially regarding its foreign and domestic policies. U.S. President George W. Bush declared a global "war on terrorism," and lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed. Security measures within the United States were also tightened considerably, especially at airports.

The attacks killed 2,977 people, excluding the 19 terrorists. At the World Trade Center in New York City, 2,753 people died, including 343 firefighters. The death toll at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., was 184, and 40 individuals died outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The attacks caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage and induced global market shocks. The collapse of the Twin Towers coated Lower Manhattan in a blanket of toxic dust, and fires at Ground Zero continued to smolder for months after the attacks. Many first responders who were active in the initial rescue and recovery effort reported respiratory issues, and the CDC estimated that as many as 400,0000 people in the surrounding area had been exposed to potentially harmful substances or severe physical or emotional stress as a result of the attacks.

The attacks also had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets. The stock exchanges did not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17. Reopening, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8921, a record-setting one-day point decline. In New York City, about 430,000 job months and $2.8 billion in wages were lost in the first three months after the attacks.

The attacks resulted in immediate responses to the event, including domestic reactions, closings and cancellations, hate crimes, Muslim-American responses to the event, international responses to the attack, and military responses to the events.

The attacks also had a significant impact on the religious faith of many individuals; for some, it strengthened their beliefs, while for others, it caused them to question or lose their faith entirely.

The attacks led to the US declaring a 'War on Terror'

The attacks on September 11, 2001, carried out by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda, led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. The attacks, the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, involved the hijacking of four planes, three of which were used to strike significant U.S. sites.

The attacks led to the U.S. declaring a "War on Terror", with former President George W. Bush vowing to defeat al-Qaeda and other groups. The U.S. launched a global war on terror, fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

The U.S. also invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had rejected the conditions of U.S. terms to expel al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and extradite its leaders. The U.S. invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, calling on allies to fight al-Qaeda.

The attacks also led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the passing of the USA PATRIOT Act, which expanded the federal government's counterterrorism response and surveillance powers.

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