DNA Identifications of September 11 Victims: New Techniques Bring Closure to Families

2023-09-10 01:44:00

Twenty-two years following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the remains of two victims killed in the World Trade Center towers in New York might be identified using DNA. More than 1,100 victims have still not been identified.

The identities of the two victims, a man and a woman, have not been released at the request of the families. They bring to 1,649 the number of people whose remains have been identified, out of a total of 2,753 deaths following an Al-Qaeda commando rushed two airliners into the Twin Towers in Manhattan, the Bureau of Medicine said. Law of New York (OCME).

‘We hope these new identifications bring some comfort to the victims’ families, and the efforts of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner demonstrate the City’s unwavering commitment to reuniting all World Trade Center victims with their loved ones ,’ said the city’s mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, on Friday.

New technique

1,104 victims have still not been able to be identified and the last two identifications date back to 2021. When the south tower, then the north tower, of the World Trade Center, collapsed following the attack, the violence of the deluge of fire, d The steel and dust was such that no DNA trace was ever found for hundreds of deaths.

The two new identifications were made possible thanks to a ‘recently adopted next-generation sequencing technique that is more sensitive and faster than conventional DNA techniques,’ explains the OCME. It is used in particular by the American army.

The attacks are commemorated each year in New York with official ceremonies, as will be the case on Monday. On September 11, 2001, jihadists hijacked four planes, two of which hit the World Trade Center towers, one gutted part of the Pentagon near Washington, and another crashed in a wooded area of ​​Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

These attacks, the deadliest in history, left a total of 2,977 dead.

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