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Remains of 2 Sept. 11 hijackers identified

New York medical examiners using DNA samples have identified the remains of two of the 10 suicide hijackers who crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, officials said Thursday. The FBI provided the medical examiners’ office with DNA profiles of the 10 hijackers, said Ellen Barakove, a spokeswoman for the New York Medical Examiner’s office. Examiners “a few days ago” matched two of the profiles to remains collected after the twin towers’ collapse, she told CNN. Examiners could not say which of the hijackers’ remains had been discovered because the FBI did not identify which of the DNA samples belonged to which hijacker, she said. The samples came from items recovered from locations such as the scene of the crashes, a hotel or other places where the hijackers stayed, said a law enforcement official. The matches could be beneficial to the investigation into the attacks by revealing more about what the hijackers were like and where they had been, said an FBI spokesman in New York. Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky, professor of forensics at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, believes the discovery is “extremely significant.” “This is the first confirmation that these individuals were on those planes. Now we have their genetics, we can use this information to follow them. Perhaps we can hook them to other individuals,” Kobilinsky said. Full Story