US emerged stronger after 9/11 attacks – Obama

President Barack Obama
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United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday said America has emerged stronger 11 years after the terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon which killed more than 2,900 people and forever changed the nation and the world.

Obama said September 11 victims would be remembered "no matter how many years pass" as Americans marked the 11th anniversary of the attacks.

Two of the passenger jets brought down the Twin Towers of New York City's World Trade Center, another hit the Pentagon outside Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers aboard the flight fought back against the hijackers.

Obama, speaking at the Pentagon where 184 people were killed, told victims' families that the whole country shares their loss.

"Eleven times we have paused in remembrance and reflection, in unity and in purpose," Obama said. "This is never an easy day, but it is especially difficult for all of you, the families of nearly 2,900 innocents who lost their lives."

"But no matter how many years pass, no matter how many times we come together on this hallowed ground, know this: That you will never be alone, your loved ones will never be forgotten. They will endure in the hearts of our nation because through their sacrifice they helped us make the America we are today, an America that has emerged even stronger."

At the Pentagon ceremony, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said terrorists attacked "the symbols of American strength," but instead produced only "a new sense of unity and resolve, that this would not happen again."

Earlier, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stood with heads bowed and hands clasped on the White House lawn to observe a moment of silence at the exact time the first hijacked plane hit New York's World Trade Center in 2001, CNN reports.

At the ground zero site in lower Manhattan, family members and others read the names of the 2,753 people killed there. No politicians were included in the New York ceremony, near a new high-rise tower built where two hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center buildings.