For the first time in 20 years, 9/11 anniversary marked without US troops in Afghanistan

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This year, for the first time in 20 years, the anniversary of 9/11 will be marked without US troops in Afghanistan, where the terrorist attacks were planned. September 11 attacks, also called the 9/11 attacks, series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks were committed in 2001 by 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in US history.

The attacks caused extensive death and destruction and triggered an enormous US effort to combat terrorism. In all, 2,977 people lost their lives, most of them in New York. All 246 passengers and crew aboard the four planes were killed. At the Twin Towers, 2,606 people died - then or later of injuries. At the Pentagon, 125 people were killed. Pentagon officials who survived the attack in Washington that killed 125 reflected on two decades of conflict that has defined several military generations, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The US and its NATO allies raided Afghanistan in October 2001 to overthrow the Taliban, considered as "war on terror", spent billions but the end resulted in the formation of the Taliban's "Islamic Emirate" in Afghanistan, reported the International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS). However, they ended their involvement in a war-torn nation last month. And it is coloured, for many, by still-fresh reactions to the US exit from the country in late August, which saw 13 troops killed and 20 injured along with hundreds of Afghan casualties from an Islamic State attack in the war's final days.

Also Read: Taliban has banned women's sports in Afghanistan: Report

This unending conflict in what is termed as the 'Graveyard of Empires' has left the Taliban relentless and unscathed thanks to persistent Pakistan support for more than 20 years. Building terror bases within Afghanistan again will be an easy task with the Taliban in control as camps of groups like the LeT, JeM is reportedly in the process of being shifted to Afghanistanfrom Pakistan to avoid the FATF Blacklist, reported IFFRAS. Moreover, the NATO-backed Government and all other institutions built over the last 20 years have been completely routed and the Taliban have categorically announced women's rights to be within the sphere of the Sharia.

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