Suicide aircraft attacks on The World Trade Center and the Pentagon left untold numbers injured or dead and threw the cities into chaos on September 11, 2001. It began at the height of a morning rush hour in the nation's largest city. A plane, reportedly a hijacked American Airlines jet, slammed into one tower of the 110-story World Trade Center. As smoke and flames poured out of the building and rescue workers battled to save victims, a second plane hit the second tower. The two towers soon collapsed. Huge clouds of smoke hung over Manhattan. The nearby Wall Street financial markets were shut down. A short time later, another plane struck the Pentagon, touching off a massive explosion and fire, and tearing a hole in one side of the historic building.

On August 20, 1978, Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze by Islamist militants (see Byman), killing approximately 430 individuals. The shah and the country’s intelligence service, SAVAK, were initially accused of planning the fire but after testimony by the lone surviving arsonist, it was proven that Khomeinist devotees were behind the incident.