New York ceremony marks 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

America marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Saturday with pleas for unity at solemn ceremonies given added resonance by the messy withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and return to power of the Taliban.
At the 9/11 memorial in New York, relatives wiped away tears, their voices breaking as they read out the names of the almost 3,000 people killed in the Al-Qaeda attacks, the deadliest in history.
The service at Ground Zero where 2,753 people died -- some of whom jumped to their deaths from the burning towers -- took place under tight security, with Lower Manhattan effectively locked down.
The first of six moments of silence was marked at 8:46 am, with a bell ringing to symbolize the time the first hijacked plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
At 9:03 am, attendees stood still again to mark the moment the South Tower was struck. At 9:37 am, it was the Pentagon, where the hijacked airliner killed 184 people in the plane and on the ground.
At 9:59, the moment the South Tower fell. At 10:03 am, they remembered the fourth plane to crash in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought the hijackers. And at 10:28 am, the North Tower falling.
Mourners clutched photos of their loved ones, their pain still raw despite a whole generation having grown up since the morning of September 11, 2001.
In the last 20 years, bin Laden has been killed and a new skyscraper dubbed the "Freedom Tower" has risen over Manhattan, replacing the Twin Towers.
But the consequences of 9/11 rumble on. 
In Guantanamo Bay, accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men continue to await trial, nine years after charges were filed.
And only last week Biden ordered the release of classified documents from the FBI investigation over the next six months.
For many Americans 9/11 remains about one thing: loss.