NEW YORK: Twenty-two years after the September 11 jihadist attacks on the United States, the remains of two people who died in the collapse of the Wor...
In this file photo smoke billows from the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York on September 11, 2001. AFPPIX: Twenty-two years after the September 11 jihadist attacks on the United States, the remains of two people who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center have been identified through DNA analysis, the authorities said ahead of the latest commemoration of the 2001 disaster.
“We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims, and the ongoing efforts by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city’s unwavering commitment to reunite all the World Trade Center victims with their loved ones,“ Mayor Eric Adams said, according to a statement released late Friday.
But with 1,104 victims still unidentified, progress has been agonizingly slow. The previous two identifications were made in 2021. When the trade center's south tower, and then its north, collapsed in a deafening roar, raining down a deluge of fire, choking gray dust and twisted steel on the Manhattan streets below, the violence was so extreme that no identifiable trace has been found of hundreds of the missing.
The two latest identifications were made possible through the use of “next-generation sequencing technology - more sensitive and rapid than conventional DNA techniques,“ the statement said. Remains of the man and woman had been found years ago.Nineteen jihadists, most of them Saudis, had hijacked four planes.