Military-type tactics seen in attack on US Consulate

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The heavily armed extremists who laid siege to the U.S. Consulate in Libya used military-style tactics that may have steered Americans toward a waiting ambush, U.S. officials said Friday as they pieced together details about how the compound was overrun.

U.S. intelligence indicates that 50 or more people, many of them masked, were responsible for the Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Gun trucks provided added firepower. The attackers set up a perimeter, controlling access in and out of the compound. A first wave of attacks sent the Americans fleeing to a fallback building, where a second group of extremists beset them with precise mortar fire.

Intelligence reports still were coming in, but officials told The Associated Press that what may have seemed initially like a protest over an anti-Islam movie that had spun out of control now showed the hallmarks of a more-sophisticated operation.

In a country coming off a civil war, a level of battlefield savvy does not prove the attack on the compound was planned well in advance. How much planning went into the operation and whether it could have been detected or prevented remain unanswered questions, officials said.

The attacks killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith and two former Navy SEALs, who U.S. officials said were in Libya on contract with the CIA.

The officials stressed that even now, authorities do not have a clear understanding of exactly what happened in Benghazi.