The United States has taken a series of anti-terrorist actions in the past five years in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the country.

On Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers commandeered four U.S. airliners. Two crashed into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., while the fourth crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving some 3,000 people dead and causing huge economic loss.

After the attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush called Osama bin Laden, head of the al Qaeda, a "prime suspect" in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and decided to launch wars on terror.

The following are key facts about U.S. anti-terror actions in the past five years:

The U.S.-led coalition launched a large scale of military attacks in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, as Afghanistan was believed to harbor Saudi-born billionaire Osama bin Laden and the ruling Taliban refused to hand over him. The Taliban's regime was toppled in less than two months, but Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and bin Laden escaped. And bin Laden has been on the run since.

The United States then listed Iraq as the next target of its anti-terrorist war. The U.S. launched the Iraqi war in March, 2003 under the pretext of Baghdad's possessing weapons of mass destruction and linking with Osama bin Laden.

The Iraqi regime headed by President Saddam Hussein was overthrown soon. But the final investigation report on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by the U.S. Congress showed that Saddam's regime did not have a direct link with al Qaeda and Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.

The United States paid a heavy price in the wars, with more than 2,900 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq alone and losses amounting to 450 billion U.S. dollars for the two wars.

Bush signed the Patriot Act on Sept. 19, 2001, which broadened the ability of the U.S. government to obtain private records, conduct wiretaps and searches and share information.

In April, 2002, The U.S. defense ministry established a new Northern Command to coordinate responses to terrorist attacks within the nation's borders.

In November, 2002, Bush signed an act to establish the U.S. Homeland Security Department and announced that the act would help the United States fight terrorist attacks more coordinately and effectively.

In September, 2002, the U.S. government published its first national security strategy, formally shifting U.S. military strategy toward pre-emptive strikes on terrorists and hostile states.

In February, 2003, Bush issued the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, focusing on taking the fight to the terrorists themselves and taking unilateral actions if necessary.

However, U.S. media reported on Sept. 6 that a latest survey showed that 40 percent of New York citizens believed there has been a rise in terrorist threats compared with five years ago. And 81 percent said Americans would live under the threat of terrorist attacks for a long time to come.

Another survey conducted by the AP showed that 60 percent of the interviewees believed the Iraqi war had added to the terrorist threats to the U.S.

Source: Xinhua