troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War of 1990-91 violated the sacred spaces around Mecca and Medina.” (Reed). After Bin Laden declared war on the United States, Bin Laden and his allies started to plan attacks on the United States which eventually led up to the 9/11 attacks. The first attack on the United States was the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. The first assault was a precursor to the 9/11 attacks; the bombing killed 6 people and injured thousands of people. The second attack was the attack on the American military barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996. The third attack was the attack on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The fourth and last attack before the 9/11 attacks was the bombing of the U.S. Navy Ship, Cole, in Aden Harbor in 2000. The attack was a planned suicide bombing, and it killed 17 sailors and injured 40 other crew members. The bombing caused a 40 foot wide hole in the navy ship. On September 11, 2001, the first hijacking happened on American Airlines Flight 11. At 5:45 A.M, two hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari, go through airport security at the Portland International Jetport in …show more content…
The second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, originated from Boston and took off at 8:15 AM. On Flight 175, there were 51 passengers, 9 crew members, and 5 hijackers. Flight 175 “struck the south tower 17 minutes later” (Bergen). American Airlines was the third plane that was hijacked by Al-Qaeda. At 8:20, “American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Dulles, outside Washington, DC, headed for Los Angeles. There were 53 passengers, 6 crew members, and 5 hijackers on board” (Huiskes). At 9:37 A.M., Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, killing all the passengers on board and 125 civilians and military personnel. The last plane, United Airlines Flight 93, originated from Newark, New Jersey and was headed for San Francisco, California. “There are 33 passengers, 7 crew members, and 4 hijackers on board” (Huiskes). The last flight crashed in an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The passengers were notified of the attacks on the World Trade Center through their devices, so they were able to subdue the hijackers and crash the plane into an empty field to prevent further