Anna Ringle

dpa

(TNS)

New York — The United States marked 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Friday, with bells tolling at Ground Zero to commemorate the exact moment planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York City. 

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the attacks on September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes, flying two into the World Trade Center towers and one into the Pentagon, where the Defense Department is based.

The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers on board tackled the hijackers, with their intended target still unclear a quarter of a century later.

In a speech at the Pentagon, President Donald Trump said the US "will never, ever forget" and linked the events of 9/11 and the subsequent US war on terror to his ongoing conflict in Iran. 

"We will never, ever forget. That's why we fight today," said Trump. "We don't have a choice. There can only be victory."

At the Ground Zero memorial site in New York, relatives read out the names of the victims who died in the World Trade Center.

Former president George W. Bush, who was in the White House at the time of the attacks and launched the so-called "war on terror," attended the service along with his later successor Joe Biden and the current Vice President JD Vance, as well as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Bells tolled at the exact time each of the four planes crashed on 9/11, as well as the moments when the Twin Towers collapsed, with a minute of silence following on each occasion. 

For the first time, a seventh bell tolled to acknowledge those who died from complications linked to the attacks in New York after rushing to the site to help search for survivors beneath the rubble. 

The collapse of the roughly 400-metre-high towers and the fires that followed released a highly toxic mixture of dust and pollutants into the air, leaving the area hazardous for weeks afterwards.

The US government has acknowledged that the number of people who died from subsequent health problems has already far exceeded the number killed in the attacks.

So far, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC) has recorded more than 57,000 cases of cancer linked to the attacks.

Trump links 9/11 to Iran war

In his speech at the Pentagon, Trump used the 9/11 attacks as justification for his conflict with Iran. 

"We will always remember the victims and the families of September 11, 2001," he said. 

"Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago."

In the years after 9/11, the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq in its effort to hunt down those responsible for the attacks. 

The mastermind of the unprecedented plane hijackings was Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. He was killed by US special forces in 2011 on the orders of president Barack Obama. 

Hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflicts, including thousands of soldiers from the US and its NATO allies. 

"For 25 years, our best and bravest have kept America safe, and today we salute every member of the United States military who served in the war on terror," said Trump. 

"And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon," he added. 

The US launched its conflict against Iran alongside Israel on February 28. Despite months of on-off negotiations, the conflict is ongoing.

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