And the official provides the following timeline:
–Around 9:40pm (local) the first call comes in to the Annex that the Mission is coming under attack.
–Fewer than 25 minutes later, a security team left the Annex for the Mission.
–Over the next 25 minutes, team members approach the compound, attempt to secure heavy weapons, and make their way onto the compound itself in the face of enemy fire.
–At 11:11pm, the requested ISR arrives over the Mission compound.
–By 11:30pm, all US personnel, except for the missing US Ambassador, depart the Mission. The exiting vehicles come under fire.
–Over the next roughly 90 minutes, the Annex receives sporadic small arms fire and RPG rounds; the security team returns fire, and the attackers disperse (approx 1am).
–At about the same time, a team of additional security personnel lands at the Benghazi airport, negotiates for transport into town, and upon learning the Ambassador was missing and that the situation at the Annex had calmed, focused on locating the Ambassador, and trying to secure information on the security situation at the hospital.
–Still pre-dawn timeframe, that team at the airport finally manages to secure transportation and armed escort and — having learned that the Ambassador was almost certainly dead and that the security situation at the hospital was uncertain — heads to the Annex to assist with the evacuation.
–They arrive with Libyan support at the Annex at 5:15am, just before the mortar rounds begin to hit the Annex. The two security officers were killed when they took direct mortar fire as they engaged the enemy. That attack lasted only 11 minutes then also dissipated.
–Less than an hour later, a heavily armed Libyan military unit arrived to help evacuate the compound of all US personnel.
No comments:
Post a Comment