The United States has reached a plea deal with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants, the US Department of Defense said on Wednesday (local time).
Mohammed, often known as KSM, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 for his alleged involvement in the terror attacks. In 2008, Mohammed was charged with a list of crimes including conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, and terrorism and material support of terrorism, according to CNN. The US had said it would seek a death penalty for Mohammed.
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Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi have also reached plea agreements, according to the Pentagon. According to the New York Times, the men agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence instead of a death penalty.
On September 11, 2001, the United States faced the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. More than 3,000 people were killed in the terror attacks. In a span of just 102 minutes, the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center collapsed after planes hijacked by Al Qaeda operatives crashed into them.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the northeastern US to California. They seized control of the jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the third plane into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the American military) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching its presumed target. The attacks claimed nearly 3,000 lives. Passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 overcame the hijackers, causing the plane to crash in a field and preventing another target from being hit.
