Six years on, America marks September 11 attacks

America was to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Tuesday with more muted commemorations than in previous years but under the shadow of renewed threats from Al-Qaeda.

In New York, where 2,749 people were killed when two hijacked planes plowed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, rescue workers were to read out the names of the dead in a solemn ceremony.

Unlike in past years, most of the ceremony will be held at a park near Ground Zero, the area where the Twin Towers once stood, and not on the site itself, where construction on a memorial and other new buildings is under way.

In what has become an annual ritual, the reading of the names will pause for four moments of silence to mark the exact times that the planes hit the towers and when the massive buildings collapsed into piles of rubble and dust.

Church bells are to toll at 8:46 am (1246 GMT) to mark the moment that the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into the North Tower.

Relatives of those killed will then be able to descend a long ramp into the World Trade Center site to lay flowers and pause momentarily.

The ceremony is a lower profile event than the commemorations last year to mark the fifth anniversary of the attacks, when President George W. Bush laid a wreath at the site and later made a televised address to the nation.

Bush, who this year called for Americans to mark the attacks with memorial services and candlelight vigils, was to attend a remembrance service in Washington and later observe a moment of silence at the White House.

As in previous years, Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden released a taped message ahead of the commemorations, mocking the United States as “weak” and threatening to escalate the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda’s media arm said that it would also release a video of Bin Laden giving the last testament of one of the 9/11 hijackers and showed images of the world’s most wanted man with hijacker Walid al-Shehri.

Near to Ground Zero, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was to introduce the commemorations.

“It will be a solemn occasion for remembrance and renewal, a day for us to reflect on those we lost,” he said ahead of the ceremony.

His predecessor, Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani, will also deliver a reading, sparking criticism from some of the families of those killed, given his presidential ambitions.

Giuliani has made much of his role as mayor in the aftermath of the attacks, but firefighters especially have criticized the city’s response to the disaster and have accused Giuliani of making political capital out of the attacks.

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, is also due to take part in the ceremony, reading the names of the dead.

In the evening, a “Tribute in Light” is to project two massive beams of light into the night sky above Ground Zero to symbolize the collapsed towers.

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where hijackers brought down United Airlines Flight 93 in a remote field, tributes were to be held to honor the 40 passengers and crew killed.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was to lead a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 flew into the Defense Department headquarters.

The department held a Freedom Walk at the weekend to honor the dead and show support for US troops, more than 4,100 of whom have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since Bush declared a “war on terror” after the attacks.

His popularity has plummeted since he stood in the ruins of the World Trade Center with a bullhorn six years ago to rally the American people.

Public dissatisfaction lies mainly in the war in Iraq and concern over whether the United States is safer now than it was six years ago, when fugitive Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden launched the attacks.

The militant Islamist leader remains at large and is believed to be hiding in the mountainous region straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.