Ten years since the coordinated attacks on the U.S. mainland on September 11 2001, the world has changed.
By REUTERSterrorist 311(photo credit: REUTERS)
The US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks led to an initial rout of the Taliban, and a war that has claimed countless thousands of lives.The aim was to capture or kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden - thought to be holed up in a network of caves in the remote and tribal Tora Bora Mountains in Afghanistan.The region came under intense US led attack, initially from B-52 bombers.On the ground, US and anti-Taliban forces launched a series of coordinated searches for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters - and for bin Laden himself.As the invasion of Afghanistan intensified, so did world-wide Islamic militancy.
In Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led 'War on Terror', anti-US and pro-Taliban demonstrators held massive rallies.Soon after, bombings against Western targets began.One of the first attacks by al-Qaida sympathizers was in Bali on October 12 2001, when bombers targeted night clubs and bars popular with Western tourists.More than 180 people died in the blasts.In Madrid in March 2004, more than 60 people were killed in a series of coordinated explosions targeting rush hour commuter trains.
The following year, in July 2005, London was shaken by its deadliest peacetime attack. 40 people were killed and some 700 others injured when suicide bombers set off four blasts on packed underground trains and a bus.And in 2008, Islamic militants attacked tourist hotels in Mumbai, killing 164 people.Almost 10 years after 9/11, bin Laden was eventually tracked down and killed by US Special Forces in a compound in Abbottabad, not far from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.But al-Qaida is still operating, militant attacks persist, and the legacy of 9/11 continues to claim lives.
