<P> In late 2000, Massoud officially brought together this new alliance in a meeting in Northern Afghanistan to discuss "a Loya Jirga, or a traditional council of elders, to settle political turmoil in Afghanistan". That part of the Pashtun - Tajik - Hazara - Uzbek peace plan did eventually develop . Among those in attendance was Hamid Karzai . </P> <P> In early 2001, Massoud, with other ethnic leaders, addressed the European Parliament in Brussels, asking the international community to provide humanitarian help to the people of Afghanistan . He said that the Taliban and al - Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan and Osama bin Laden, the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for another year . On this visit to Europe, he warned that his intelligence had gathered information about an imminent, large - scale attack on U.S. soil . </P> <P> On 9 September 2001, Massoud was critically wounded in a suicide attack by two Arabs posing as journalists, who detonated a bomb hidden in their video camera during an interview in Khoja Bahauddin, in the Takhar Province of Afghanistan . Massoud died in the helicopter taking him to a hospital . The funeral, held in a rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of mourning Afghans . </P> <P> On the morning of 11 September 2001, al - Qaeda carried out four coordinated attacks on the United States . Four commercial passenger jet airliners were hijacked . The hijackers--members of al - Qaeda's Hamburg cell--intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City . Both buildings collapsed within two hours from fire damage related to the crashes, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others . The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia . The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C., to target the White House or the United States Capitol . No flights had survivors . In total, 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers, died and more than 6,000 others injured in the attacks . According to the New York State Health Department, 836 first responders, including firefighters and police personnel, had died as of June 2009 . </P>

How did us ground troops help the allies