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The Towers aflame during the attacks.

On September 11, 2001, theIslamistterrorist organizational-Qaeda, led byOsama bin Laden, executed a plan in which a group of nineteen men, mainly fromSaudi Arabia, hijacked four passenger airplanes to crash two intoNew York City's World Trade Center twin towers, one into thePentagon, and one into either theCapitol Building or theWhite House. The first three succeeded, but the fourth crashed in Shanksville,Pennsylvania.

The death toll has been established at 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers, making it the worst terrorist attack in American history. While the international community condemned the attacks, someIslamicfundamentalists in theMiddle East viewed them as part of a legitimatejihad. As a result, the United Statesinvaded Afghanistan to eliminate al-Qaeda and bin Laden and to remove theTaliban regime (in retaliation for harboring bin Laden). The U.S. military subsequently occupied that country until December 2014, making it the longest war in America's history.

Besides unspeakable horror, this plan also unleashed a plethora ofconspiracy theories, especially after PresidentGeorge W. Bush announced plans to intervene inAfghanistan.

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