By Shahjahan Khurram
It has been 16 years ever since the September 11, 2001 attacks rattled New York and sent shockwaves across the world, sparking the American invasion of Afghanistan that still continues to claim thousands of lives every year.
At 8:46 a.m. ET - American Airlines Flight 11 (traveling from Boston to Los Angeles) struck the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. It took 102 minutes for the World Trace Center towers to collapse, horrifying thousands across the city.
At the World Trade Center (WTC) site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the north and south towers or as a result of the crashes.
News spread of the attack like wildfire around the world, with the global community shocked and horrified at the scale of attack. Four US commercial jets had been hijacked by 19 terrorists who smashed two planes into the twin towers and two others were crashed in Washington D.C. and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The Pentagon building was targeted in one of the plane crashes. 184 people were killed as hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building.
An estimated loss of $123 billion was incurred as the twin towers collapsed and it took $60 billion to undo the damage that had been caused from the collapse of the towers to the nearby buildings and subway facilities.
The Department of Homeland Security was established in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. 22 government agencies were merged into one that included Immigration and Naturalization Service, the US Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as the Customs Service.