Obama pays tribute to 3,000 lost in 9/11 atrocity

US President Barack Obama has honoured the nearly 3,000 people who were lost in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In his weekly radio and internet address, Mr Obama said that while so much has changed in the years since 9/11 it is important to remember what has stayed the same.

“The core values that define us as Americans. The resilience that sustains us,” he said on the eve of the 15th anniversary of one of the nation’s darkest days.

He said the terrorists’ goal is to frighten Americans in to changing how they live, but “Americans will never give in to fear”.

“We’re still the America of heroes who ran in to harm’s way, of ordinary folks who took down the hijackers, of families who turned their pain in to hope,” Mr Obama said.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York City, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon when hijacked commercial airliners were slammed into all three locations in attacks that were planned and carried out by the al Qaida terrorist group.

He noted in his address that the terrorist threat has evolved since September 11 “as we’ve seen so tragically from Boston to Chattanooga, from San Bernardino to Orlando”, cities that suffered terrorist-linked, fatal shootings.

Earlier New York Police Department marked 9/11 with a parade through lower Manhattan to honour its 23 officers who died at the World Trade Center. It also commemorated 99 officers who died of illnesses after the rescue operation.