ABSTRACT
On the 11th, September 2001, 19 al-Qaeda suicide operatives hijacked four commercial airliners and changed history. All of the passengers and crew on the planes died, as another 3,000 on ground, mostly in the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings when they collapsed. Immediately, the US government, including the Department of Defense, CIA, and FBI began an investigation into the perpetrators. The target was al-Qaeda, the international terrorist organization, based and training in a number of areas around the world, particularly in poorly governed spaces in Afghanistan, but also in the Philippines and the Horn of Africa. Operation Enduring Freedom was the umbrella military name for the US effort against al-Qaeda. In the days following 9/11, the US began attacks against al-Qaeda, targeting their training areas and infrastructure. Suffice it to say that the US was willing to attack the terrorists where they lived and trained, and wanted to not only destroy al-Qaeda, but also seek revenge for the 9/11 attacks.
