The hijackers of 9/11

These are the 19 men who hijacked the four passenger jets on September 11 2001.

American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre at 8.46am.

Mohamed Atta
Egyptian-born Atta, 33, was the operational leader of the 9/11 attacks and the pilot of the first airliner the terrorists crashed that day.

The former town planner led a terror cell linked to several other hijackers while he was studying in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1990s. He learned to fly in Florida.

Waleed al Shehri
Al Shehri, 22, who was from a devout and wealthy family from the poor Asir region of Saudi Arabia along the Yemen border, is thought to have trained in Afghanistan with his brother Wail - also one of the terrorists on board Flight 11 - before moving to Florida.

Wail al Shehri
The former PE teacher, 28, reportedly fell under the influence of militants after becoming heavily depressed and travelling to Medina with his brother Waleed to seek help from clerics.

Abdul Aziz al Omari
Al Omari, also from Asir in Saudi Arabia, graduated with honours from high school, held a university degree and was married with a daughter. He often served as an imam at his mosque.

Satam al Suqami
Al Suqami, 25, from the Saudi capital Riyadh, had very little education. He appeared to have little interest in religion and was known to drink alcohol. He was the only one of the hijackers who did not obtain US identification documents.

United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Centre at 9.03am

Marwan al Shehhi
Al Shehhi, 23, who was born in Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, was at the controls of the second aircraft that the hijackers flew into the World Trade Centre.

After six months in the UAE military, he moved to Germany to study and began living with Atta in Hamburg in 1998. He received pilot training in Florida.

Fayez Banihammad
Banihammad, from the UAE, worked closely with one of the financial backers of the 9/11 plot.

Ahmed al Ghamdi
Al Ghamdi was from the isolated and impoverished al Bahah region of Saudi Arabia. He attended prayer services regularly.

Hamza al Ghamdi
He also came from al Bahah and was known to be a devout Muslim.

Mohand al Shehri
Saudi-born university drop-out al Shehri frequently left his family to visit al Qassim in Saudi Arabia, home to a radical mosque known as a "terrorist factory" that was also linked to other 9/11 hijackers.

American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington DC to Los Angeles, which crashed into the Pentagon at 9.37am.

Hani Hanjour
Hanjour, 29, from Taif in Saudi Arabia, piloted the hijacked aircraft used to target Washington DC.

He was still a teenager when in the late 1980s he made the first of many trips to Afghanistan to fight. He obtained his commercial pilot's licence in Arizona in the US in 1999 and was recruited to the 9/11 plot at an al Qaida training camp in Afghanistan the next year.

Khalid al Mihdhar
Al Mihdhar, 26, was born in Mecca in Saudi Arabia and became a veteran jihadist, fighting in Bosnia and Afghanistan, before allegedly being selected by al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden for a suicide attack on America in 1999.

Majed Moqed
The Saudi Arabian university drop-out came from a small town west of Medina called Annakhil.

Nawaf al Hazmi
Mecca-born al Hazmi was an experienced mujahideen fighter when he was reportedly hand-picked by bin Laden along with al Mihdhar for a plot against the US involving crashing hijacked aircraft. Like al Mihdhar, he had spent hardly any time in the West and spoke little or no English.

Salem al Hazmi
Nawaf's younger brother, also from Mecca, was described by his family as a quarrelsome teenager who had problems with alcohol and petty theft. His brother reportedly pleaded with bin Laden for him to be allowed to take part in 9/11.

United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco, which crashed in a field 80 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at 10.03am

Ziad Jarrah
Jarrah, 26, from Mazraa in Lebanon, was the pilot of the Boeing 757 that smashed into an empty field after passengers stormed the flight deck to prevent the terrorists reaching their intended target.

He came from a well-off family, attended Christian schools, had a girlfriend, and attended parties and drank beer while studying in Germany. He was radicalised after moving to Hamburg in 1997 and meeting Atta.

Saeed al Ghamdi
Al Ghamdi, from al Bahah in Saudi Arabia, dropped out of university and cut himself off from his family.

Ahmad al Haznawi
Al Haznawi, also from al Bahah, was the first of the 9/11 hijackers to be heard explaining his murderous actions in a martyrdom video released by al Qaida in April 2002.

Ahmed al Nami
Al Nami, from Asir in Saudi Arabia, was reportedly accepted for a suicide mission after appealing directly to bin Laden at a training camp in Afghanistan.