9/11 terror attacks still reverberate

NEW YORK－People in the United States remembered 9/11 on Sunday with tributes and pleas to "never forget", 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on US soil.

The loss still felt immediate to Bonita Mentis, who wore a necklace with a photo of her slain sister Shevonne Mentis.

"It's been 21 years, but it's not 21 years for us. It seems like just yesterday," she said before reading out the victims' names at the World Trade Center to a crowd that included Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Relatives of victims, police officers, firefighters and city leaders gathered at the National September 11 Memorial& Museum in Lower Manhattan, where the names of those who died there were read aloud in an hourslong ritual that has been held annually.

They rang bells and observed moments of silence six times, including at 8:46 am and 9:03 am, the precise minutes the passenger jets struck the World Trade Center's North and South Towers.

At the Pentagon, which was also targeted on 9/11, US President Joe Biden vowed that the US would continue working to root out terrorist plots.

"I know for all those of you who lost someone, 21 years is both a lifetime and no time at all," Biden said in a speech. "The American story itself changed that day."

First lady Jill Biden spoke at the third attack site, a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The anniversary ceremonies center on remembering the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes rammed into the trade center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville on Sept 11, 2001.

Chaotic withdrawal

In ending the Afghanistan war, the president followed through on a campaign pledge to withdraw US troops from the country's longest conflict. But the war concluded chaotically last August, when the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and a grisly bombing killed 170 Afghans and 13 US troops at Kabul's airport.

Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan late last month.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday criticized Biden's handling of the end of the war and said that the nation has spiraled downward under renewed Taliban rule since the US withdrawal.

"Now, one year on from last August's disaster, the devastating scale of the fallout from President Biden's decision has come into sharper focus," McConnell said. "Afghanistan has become a global pariah. Its economy has shrunk by nearly a third. Half of its population is now suffering critical levels of food insecurity."

Harris and New York Mayor Eric Adams were among dignitaries attending the New York event, where relatives placed flowers at the memorial and held placards with images of their loved ones.

New York was illuminated late on Saturday with a light tribute that showed two blue beams, symbolizing the Twin Towers, projecting into the night sky.

In addition to those killed in the Sept 11 attacks, thousands of first responders, construction workers and residents have since fallen ill, many of them terminally, as a result of inhaling the toxic fumes.

Agencies Via Xinhua