WTC attack death list adds 2 new victims
DNA analysis identified 1,649 out of a total 2,753 victims of the New York City terror attack
Daily TribuneDNA analysis identified 1,649 out of a total 2,753 victims of the New York City terror attack
Americans mark today the 22nd anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City with two new victims added to the list of 1,649 identified fatalities.
The identities of the two, a man and a woman, were determined through DNA analysis, the city's mayor and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Friday. Their names were being withheld at the request of their families.
"We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims, and the ongoing efforts by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city's unwavering commitment to reunite all the World Trade Center victims with their loved ones," Mayor Eric Adams said, according to a statement released late Friday.
The two latest identifications were made possible through the use of "next-generation sequencing technology" more sensitive and rapid than conventional DNA techniques," the OCME statement said. The remains had been found years ago.
A total 2,753 people were killed when an al-Qaeda commando crashed two hijacked civilian airliners into New York's twin towers during 9/11. Still unidentified are 1,104 victims.
When the trade center's south tower, and then its north, collapsed in a deafening roar, raining down a deluge of fire, choking gray dust and twisted steel on the Manhattan streets below, the violence was so extreme that no identifiable trace has been found of hundreds of the missing.
Nineteen jihadists, most of them Saudis, had hijacked four planes. In addition to the two that destroyed the World Trade Center, a third plane slammed into the Pentagon near Washington inflicting heavy damage, and a fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought with the attackers.
The attacks claimed a total 2,977 lives.
WITH AFP
