September 10, 2011

KABUL (PAN): On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the Taliban reiterated on Saturday their demand for an independent and impartial investigation into the incident.

About 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre in New York on the morning of September 11, 2001 when 19 hijackers took control of four commercial airliners en route to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Five hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Centre's North Tower and another five hit the South Tower with the United Airlines Flight 175.

Following resistance from passengers, several hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, with a fourth plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The US invaded Afghanistan a month later, blaming the Al Qaeda and Taliban for the assaults on the centres of its military and economic might. Ten years on, the war in the impoverished Central Asian continues.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the movement had long been seeking a neutral probe into the incident. "But the US and its allies are responding to our logical demand with airstrikes and attacks."

The killing of tens of thousands of innocent Afghans on the pretext of avenging the 9/11 attacks would be a perpetual question mark over Western democracy, Mujahid said in a statement.

He urged the countries involved in the conflict to mount pressure on the US not to plunder Afghanistan's natural resources under the garb of the war on terrorism.