Senior State Department officials provided detailed information on the final hours of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others who were killed during a consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya last month.
Briefing reporters on the eve of a congressional hearing, officials said their prolonged efforts to rescue Mr. Stevens failed due to severe attack from the armed men. Stevens could not be rescued as he was trapped in a smoke-filled "safe haven" inside the diplomatic compound where he apparently died of asphyxiation.
In a detailed report, The Washington Post described the events in Benghazi on Sept. 10, that the day as a calm one until 9:40 p.m. when the officials first heard loud noises, gunfire and explosions near the front gate. Seeing a huge crowd of armed men marching towards the embassy building, information has been passed to the Libyan authorities, officials in Washington, embassy in Tripoli, and a U.S. quick reaction force nearby.
An armed agent at the embassy took Stevens and a foreign-service information officer Sean Smith to a safe room and other agents equipped themselves with arms.
Two other agents from the other building tried to make it to the ambassador but were confronted by armed men and had to retreat. Breaching the compound, the attackers tried to penetrate into Stevens' building but couldn't get in. The angry mob poured cans of diesel in the building and set fire aflame the furniture and other things in the building.
Meanwhile, four other agents in the embassy was trapped in the other building where the attackers were constantly making efforts to breach in but failed. The building where the ambassador was lodged, was rapidly filling with thick diesel smoke and burning fumes from the furniture. Unable to breath, they decided to leave the room and the agent in the room went out first leaving behind Stevens and Smith. The agent took immediate fire and latercollapsed due to severe smoke inhalation.
Accroding to official reports, the four other agents were able to reunite and managed to take an armed vehicle to the other building to look for the missing Americans. They found Smith dead, but there was no trace of Stevens. A six-person team from the U.S. quick reaction security arrived at the spot along with 60 Libyan militiamen. Upon taking severe fire from the attackers, they left the compound to a secure annex which later came under attack as well.
It's still unclear how Stevens was brought to the hospital. U.S. forces later figured out where he was after someone made calls to the numbers in his mobile.
