Secret Service honors 9/11 terrorists among the victims in now-deleted post

On Wednesday, the United States Secret Service accidentally honored the 19 hijackers who committed the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a now-deleted post on X. The post made in honor of the 23rd anniversary of the tragedy included the terrorists in the victim count, Fox News reported.

The agency quickly apologized and issued another post correcting its error.

"The flag hanging in our headquarters is a solemn reminder of 9/11 and our mission's purpose. A testament to freedom and sacrifice, it honors all 2,996 lives lost, including our own Master Special Officer Craig T. Miller & Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Friend," the agency wrote on X.

The number of victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has been tallied at 2,977. That number includes victims killed in each attacked location such as the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the crashed plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In its first post, the Secret Service reported the number of deaths as 2,996, appearing to have included the 19 hijackers.

The Secret Service wrote in a follow-up post on X: "This is a correction of an earlier version of this post. In the original post, we erroneously included the total number of deceased from the Sept 11 attacks, which included the hijackers. Our intent was to only honor the victims of that tragic day and we deeply apologize for the error."

This comes after the Biden-Harris administration backtracked on a controversial plea deal for the terrorists behind Sept. 11 who are being held awaiting trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba following public outcry.