DHAKA: The US is remembering the victims of the 9/11 attacks in a series of memorials marking the 12th anniversary.

The 11 September 2001 attacks killed almost 3,000 people in New York, the Washington DC area and Pennsylvania.

In New York, families of the victims are reading the names of each person who died at the World Trade Center.

President Barack Obama was set to attend a memorial outside the Pentagon, but no speeches have been planned by politicians, reports the BBC.

The attacks led to a long war in Afghanistan and created an expansion of government surveillance powers that have recently come under intense debate.

A separate memorial will be held outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, honouring the passengers and crew of United Flight 93, who struggled with the hijackers of the plane, preventing it from hitting its intended target, believed to be the White House or the US Capitol building.

All 33 passengers and seven crew members on the flight were killed after the plane crashed into a field about 75 miles south-east of Pittsburgh.

‘No matter how many years pass, this time comes around each year, and it’s always the same,’ Karen Hinson, who lost her brother, Michael Wittenstein, in New York, told media. His body was never found.

BDST: 2037 HRS, SEPT 11, 2013
RoR/GCP