NEW YORK, September 11. /TASS/. A ceremony honoring the victims of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, which includes relatives reading out the victims’ names, is taking place in the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York.
The ceremony is being attended by US Vice President Kamala Harris. US President Joe Biden is taking part in memorial events in Alaska. The ceremony is also being attended by Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, ex-President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and New York Mayor Eric Adams.
This year, the ceremony involves young people, some of whom were born after the September 11 attacks and do not remember the events themselves. The organizers are thus trying to keep the memory of that day alive.
Later, New York will hold the traditional "Tribute in Light" event, with two columns of light rising into the sky, symbolizing the two World Trade Center skyscrapers destroyed by terrorists. A total of 44 floodlights will be used to create the columns, visible up to 100 km away.
On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists from the Al Qaeda terror group (outlawed in Russia) hijacked four passenger planes. Two of them crashed into the World Trade Center twin towers - the highest buildings in New York at the time. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon near Washington. The fourth plane was heading for Washington DC, but crashed in Pennsylvania. The attacks killed a total of 2,977 people.