The ceremony in New York marking the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks began this Saturday at the Manhattan memorial where stood the two twin towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) destroyed by jihadist attacks from Al-Qaeda. US President Joe Biden presides over the ceremony and stands alongside his predecessors, including Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
A minute of silence was observed at 8:46 a.m., exactly twenty years after the first pirated plane crashed into the North Tower. The reading of the names of the 2,977 people killed that day at the three sites of the attacks (including 2,753 in New York) then began, under the air of a flute. It will be punctuated throughout the morning by musical tributes, including a song on the dry guitar by American star Bruce Springsteen. More minutes of silence will follow: for the collapse of the New York towers, the attack on the Pentagon near Washington and the crash of one of the planes in Shanksville (Pennsylvania).