Twenty
years after the 9/11 attacks, it is back to square one as far as the Taliban and
Afghanistan are concerned. With the US withdrawal from the country they invaded
in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to uproot the Al-Queda and the Taliban, and
the latter’s takeover of Kabul, things look bleak as far as the war on terror
is concerned.

Although
the Taliban has promised that it will not let any group use Afghanistan soil
against any country, many people linked with the Al-Qaeda find their place in
the new regime.

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Here is a
look at the attackers on that fateful day and their links to the Al-Qaeda idealogy.

A total of
19 hijackers had set out that day to carry out the attacks, including four pilots
for the four planes. The four teams also included four muscle hijackers each
to take over the plane.

The Flight
11 team

This plane
was bound toward Los Angeles from Boston but ended up crashing into the Twin
Towers in New York.

The plane
was being flown by Egyptian pilot Mohamed Atta. The 33-year old was being
assisted by a team of muscle hijackers, which included Wail al Shehri, Waleed
al Shehri, Satam al Suqami, and Abdulaziz al Omari, all from Saudi Arabia.

Wail and
Waleed al Shehri were brothers from Asir, a region in Saudi Arabia bordering
Yemen. They travelled to Afghanistan where they were recruited by Al-Qaeda for
the 9/11 attacks. Al Suqami was from the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He was
recruited by Al-Qaeda while studying law and underwent training in Afghanistan.

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Al Omari
also belonged to Asir and authorities believe that he was taught by the radical
Saudi Cleric Sulayman al Alwan at his mosque in al Qassim province in Saudi
Arabia.

The Flight
175 team

This United
Airlines flight was also from Boston to Los Angeles but ended up in the Twin
Towers. The Plane was being flown by Marwan al Shehhi, who hailed from the UAE.
He met two other pilots involved in the attack in Hamburg, Germany and was
trained in Afghanistan before moving to Florida to get his pilot license. He
also flew in several surveillance flights ahead of the actual attacks.

He was
assisted by Fayez Banihammad from UAE, Ahmed al Ghamdi, Hamza al Ghamdi and Mohand
al Shehri from Saudi Arabia. All three were recruited by Al-Queda in Chechnya
and were trained in Afghanistan.

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The Flight 77 team

The American Airlines flight was hijacked over Ohio and crashed into the Pentagon. It was flown by Hani Hanjour, who came from Saudi Arabia. Hanjour was the only pilot among the attackers who already held a commercial license before joining Al Qaeda. He was already living in the US and was recruited from there.

He was assisted by Nawaf al Hazmi, Khalid al Mihdhar, Majed Moqed, and Salem al Hazmi, who were all from Saudi Arabia. All of them got their training in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.