September 11, the War on Terror, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

On September 11, 2001, the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda carried out coordinated attacks against the United States using hijacked commercial airliners. Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, causing their complete collapse; a third plane struck the Pentagon in Virginia; and a fourth plane, likely bound for Washington, D.C., crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers intervened. The attacks killed approximately 3,000 people, making them the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil to that date, and Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, was identified as the principal figure behind their planning.