19 years later: The day America was attacked

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The US today marks the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The deadliest attack on American soil since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, which changed the political situation and relations, not only in the US, but around the world.  

Nearly three thousand people lost their lives on that fateful September 11, while 343 firefighters lost their lives trying to extinguish the fires, and only 20 people managed to be rescued from the rubble.

The deadliest terrorist attack on America began on Tuesday, September 11, at 8:46 AM, when an American Airlines passenger plane hit the north tower of the WTC. The impact of a second hijacked plane on the south tower of the WTC occurred 17 minutes later and was watched live on television by millions of people. Terrorists, 19 of them according to the report of the US 911 Commission, hijacked four planes. The third hit the Pentagon at 9:37 AM. The fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM, and it is assumed that it was brought down by passengers who resisted the hijackers.  

During the collapse of the Towers, a part fell on the busiest section of the New York subway.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks, and the war in Afghanistan followed. After 10 years of searching, US forces killed bin Laden in May 2011 in an attack on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. US security services announced that the "mastermind" of the attacks was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Then-US President George Bush announced the "war on terror" just a few days after the attacks. A year later, the Department of Homeland Security was established, employing 200,000 employees, and the annual budget for intelligence and security services was doubled to just over 50 billion dollars.

Bush's successor as president, Barack Obama, once said that September 11 is a difficult day for Americans, but that it also reveals the love and loyalty in the hearts of the victims' families and in the heart of the American people.

Despite public criticism, most world countries supported the US and its fight against global terrorism. Among them is BiH, which stood firmly with the US and other Western allies in that fight from the first day.

The general assessment, agreed upon by all international experts, is that the terrorist attack of September 11 was indeed an event that changed the course of world history. Until then, time was measured as before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and since then, it is measured as before and after the attacks on the US.