Two elite U.S. special operations commandos were awarded medals of bravery for rescuing Americans during the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, according to the Washington Times.
The Pentagon has said a reinforcement flight was 400 miles away in Tripoli and contained two Department of Defense personnel. The State Department report on Benghazi mentioned U.S. military personnel were in Benghazi but didn’t provide other details. The Washington Times reports:
But sources directly familiar with the attack tell the Washington Times that a unit of eight special operators — mostly Delta Force and Green Beret members — were in Tripoli the night of the attack, on a counterterrorism mission that involved capturing weapons and wanted terrorists from the streets and helping train Libyan forces.
When word of the Benghazi attack surfaced, two members of that military unit volunteered to be dispatched along with five private security contractors on a hastily arranged flight from Tripoli to rescue Americans in danger, the sources said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the special operations forces’ existence inside Libya was secret.
The two special operations forces arrived in time to engage in the final, ferocious firefight between the terrorists and Americans holed up in the CIA annex near the ill-fated diplomatic mission in Benghazi, the sources added. […]
The revelation that some special operations forces did make it to Benghazi the night of the attack is the latest to undermine a carefully crafted story line put out by the president and his aides in the weeks leading into the 2012 election. The administration has since acknowledged that parts of that story line were misleading.