U.S. grapples with 9/11 attacks 22 years later

As the United States commemorated the 22nd anniversary of Al-Qaeda's 9/11 strikes, President Joe Biden urged Americans to stand together amid their political differences.

In solemn rituals held in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the three cities where the hijacked planes crashed, bells were rung, and the names of nearly 3,000 victims were read out.

"Let's honor September 11 by renewing our faith in one another," said Biden, speaking at a US military base in Anchorage, Alaska, as he traveled back from a trip to India and Vietnam.

"We must never lose our sense of national unity, so let that be the common cause of our time," he added.

Growing polarization

When Biden, a Democrat, heads into a possible election rematch with Republican former president Donald Trump next year, tensions will surely rise due to the country's growing polarization.

Trump has been charged four times since April, including for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. The US is also grappling with the 6 January  Capitol attack by Trump's followers.

In New York, Vice President Kamala Harris and current and former mayors joined victims' families at the 9/11 memorial on the site of the World Trade Center twin towers that two aircraft flown by hijackers brought down.

The names of the more than 2,600 who died in New York were read out by family members and young relatives not alive at the time of the attack.

"I wish I had a chance to really know you. Everyone in the family misses you. We will never forget," said the grandson of firefighter Allan Tarasiewicz, who was killed at age 45 during rescue operations at the World Trade Center.

A sailor rang a ship's bell for each 184 victims at the Pentagon in Washington, where the attackers crashed a third plane into the US military's main headquarters.

Nation at war

Bells were ringing in western Pennsylvania for each of the 40 victims who perished on board a fourth hijacked aircraft that was forcibly brought down while it was believed en route to Washington.

At the Pentagon ceremony, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declared, "September 11 made America a nation at war, and hundreds of thousands stepped up to serve our country in uniform."

"I am aware of how painful it is to recall this occasion year after year… The Department of Defense's personnel will never forget," he said.

Silence was observed to commemorate the attack across New York City, in Congress, and abroad.

The attack was planned by Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, who was captured and executed by US Navy Seals in a raid on his base in Pakistan over ten years later.

Biden noted in his speech that he had given the order for bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to be sent to the "gates of hell" last year in an airstrike in Afghanistan.

"The soul of America is the fortitude we found in fear of that terrible September day," he said.

"The terrorists believed they could bring us to our knees, bend our will, break our resolve. But they were wrong, they were dead wrong," Biden said.

With AFP