Washington, Sept 11 (IBNS) Under rainy skies, US President Barack Obama today paid an emotional tribute to the victims of the 9/11 on its eighth anniversary and vowed to track down al Qaeda and its associates relentlessly.

“Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric attack and who plot against us still. We will do everything in our power to keep our nation safe,” he said after laying a wreath at the memorial of the victims in Pentagon.

The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated and audacious suicide attacks by al Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania.

“Eight Septembers have come and gone. Nearly 3,000 days have passed; almost one for each of those taken from us. But no turning of the season can diminish the pain and the loss of that day. No passage of time and no dark skies can ever dull the meaning of this moment. So on this solemn day, at this sacred hour, once more we pause, once more we pray, as a nation and as a people,” Obama said.

Obama urged Americans to be “united not only in our grief but in our resolve to stand up for the country we love.”

“Today we honor the dead and speak to the survivors and loved ones whose lives are irrevocably changed on that terrible day eight years ago. Because of the great pinnacle of their sacrifice and because of the sacrifice of thousands more since that day we remain a strong and free nation,” he said.