9/11 victims honored at Ground Zero on 15th anniversary in US

US: The United States on Sunday commemorated the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US which claim the lives of 3,000 people with a moment of silence observed in a somber remembrance service at Ground Zero, New York.

Also in attendance at the September 11 memorial were US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the duo temporarily halt their election campaign to attend the service with police and relatives of the victims.

 

 

A moment of silence was observed at 8:46 am local time, the time when the first hijacked passenger plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The first of six moments of silence as ceremonies also took place at the Pentagon, where another jet struck. The service also paused to mark the moment when the second plane hit the South Tower as other moments of silence took place when each tower fell.


In September 11, 2001, about 3000 people were killed in Al-Qaeda attacks including 2,753 people at the world trade centre in New York, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington DC and 40 on Flight 93 which had also been headed toward Washington until passengers and crew staged a rebellion that made the hijackers crashed the plane into a field in Pennsylvania.

 

President Barack Obama, who marked the anniversary with his family in the residence of the White House, also address a remembrance service at the Pentagon.

Overseeing his last time of the September 11 anniversary as US president, Obama said;

"We wonder how their lives might have unfolded -- how their dreams might have taken shape,"

To the survivors of 9/11 and the families of victims, he said;

"Even as you've mourned, you've summoned the strength to carry on."

"You've done your best to be a good neighbor, and a good friend, and a good citizen," he added.

"You remind us there's nothing that Americans can't overcome."

President Obama said that 15 years after the attacks, terrorism threat has evolved and then went on to mention the "unspeakable violence" that occurred in Boston, San Bernardino and Orlando. 

Groups like ISIS know "they'll never be able to defeat a nation as strong as America," so they hope to spark fear and change the way Americans live, Obama said.

"We know that our diversity, our patchwork heritage, is not a weakness," he said.

"This is the America that was attacked that September morning. This is the America that we must remain true to."

In New York, police and relatives of those killed in the World Trade Center attack began the annual reading of the names of the victims at Ground Zero, now the site of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum.