20 years of 9/11 attack: Biden calls for unity

The world is marking the 20 years of the worst attack on the United States on September 9, 2001, which killed 2,977 Americans. On the anniversary of 9/11 attacks, President Joe Biden called for unity as the US prepared to remember the victims.

In a video released on the eve of the 20th anniversary, President said the country honours all those who risked or gave up their lives to the attack.

"Doesn't matter how much time has passed, these commemorations bring everything back painfully as if you just got the news a few seconds ago, but now we have learned that unity is the only thing that can never break," he added.

The terrorist attack has shaped the most consistent domestic and foreign policy decisions of the American leadership in the last two decades. The anniversary comes just over two weeks after a suicide bombing in Kabul killed 13 US service members as the military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The night of Terror

On the night of September, the same day in 2001, Roselle, the yellow Labrador, wakes up, trembles and screams in fear. As always, she noticed a thunderstorm breaking, and her owner, Michael Hingson, took her down the stairs to his basement to protect her under his desk.

Hours later, the guide dog would help Hingson, who was born blind, down the stairs to the safety of the 78th floor of the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York. Just minutes after terror outfit Al Qaeda crash-landed a plane, an American Airlines Flight 11, through Tower 1 (North Tower). Seventeen minutes later, another plane, United Airlines Flight 175, crashed into the South Tower.

Some 2,750 people died in New York, and thousands were injured, the consequences of that attack on nations over the decades.

The United States of America then started its war against terrorism the had its armies placed in Afghanistan to hunt down Al-Qaeda. The one attack on 9/11 changed everything and also resulted in islamophobia not only in the US, but globally.