‘Never, ever forget’ – America marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

AKIPRESS.COM – Twenty-five years after 9/11, US presidents past and present have commemorated the lives lost when planes hijacked by terrorists slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, BBC reports.

President Donald Trump led a Pentagon ceremony, while US Vice-President JD Vance attended a memorial at the site of the World Trade Center in New York, along with all four living former US presidents and first ladies.

Moments of silence were held to mark the timings of the attacks and the names of nearly 3,000 people who died were read out.

Commemorations were also held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed after passengers fought back against the hijackers.

George W Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks, was joined by former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at Friday’s ceremony.

At the Pentagon, President Trump attended a commemoration alongside cabinet secretaries and Condoleezza Rice, who was US secretary of state on 9/11.

“Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago,” Trump said. “We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today.”

He sought to link the “war on terror” that followed 9/11, which sparked years of US involvement in Middle East wars, with his current conflict in Iran.

Trump told the crowd that the Islamic Republic “will never, ever have a nuclear weapon”.