Barack Obama to mark ninth anniversary of September 11

US President Barack Obama will deliver a speech on Saturday to pay tribute to the 9/11 victims on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 2001 terror attack in New York.

Barack Obama will join Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen at the Pentagon for a memorial service marking the September 11 anniversary.

“Obama will observe a moment of silence at 8:46 am (4:46 pm Moscow time) at the White House. The moment of silence will be followed by Obama’s speech. He will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington,” White House spokesperson said.

The September 11 attacks (often referred to as September 11th or 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.

The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

The death toll of the attacks was 2,996, including the 19 hijackers. Some 24 people are reported missing. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries. In addition, there is at least one secondary death – one person was ruled by a medical examiner to have died from lung disease due to exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse.