africatodayonline.blogspot.com -
WASHINGTON — Two of the four U.S. deaths in Benghazi might have been prevented, military leaders say, if commanders had known more about the sporadic but intense gunfire directed at the CIA facility where Americans had taken refuge and had pressed to get a rescue team there faster.
Retired Gen. Carter Ham and other top U.S. commanders told Congress that after the first attack on the separate diplomatic compound, they thought the fighting had subsided and the Americans who fled to the CIA base in the Libyan city were safe. They didn’t know the Americans were hunkered down facing indirect fire at times through the night.
Hours later, an 11-minute mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attack slammed into the annex, killing two security contractors.
The closed-door testimony of nine military officers was released this week.
